"Accent"

[Tessa]

Okay, well, I'll put in my two-pence worth then!  I think you are right
about the confusion between 'accent' and dialect/lexical differences; the
word accent is often used to mean specific lexical choices that are used
predominantly in specific areas of the country, i.e. north and south.
 However, I think there are differences in accent, but no-one has bothered
to really examine them.  As Bencie says, middle aged women seem to
articulate differently, and I think from my observations there are clear
generational differences in the way people sign.  These I notice as being
in handshapes and movements particularly, and also facial expressions:
signs used by all deaf generations appear quite different when signed by
younger deaf people - for example, they can appear more 'emphatic' in their
production, using a greater signing space and with sharper wrist movements.
 Also, peer groups seem to develop a core group of favourite signs, many of
which are used extensively and have no direct English equivalent, and great
delight is taken when hearing students don't understand them.  This also
applies to borrowings from ASL, which I think are becoming more common, as
younger generations perceive them as being 'cool' and having a certain
'street cred', and again are used to confuse hearing signers (although I
also have seen one admission that deaf people will sometimes sign
'gobbledegook' just to deliberately see what the hearing student will do in
response!).

One problem I have encountered, and I would like to know whether it is
unique or not, is that of signing to interpreters.  I have observed that
some deaf people seem to dislike signing to interpreters, and articulate
their signs very small and without clarity, making them very hard to
understand.  Is this a phenomena that only I have seen??

On the point of accent specifically, I think differences in sign accent do
exist.  For example, when meeting new deaf people from other regions, they
are often hard to understand although they may be using the same lexical
items familiar to the receiver.  Articulation of the signs is different to
the extent of making the signs harder to understand (I think!); maybe
however, this is related to the lip patterns used, which can be highly
influenced by the regional spoken dialect the deaf person may have grown up
with.

Just some thoughts to fuel the discussion! I think more work is needed to
examine this area.

Tessa

-----Original Message-----
From:   Adam Schembri [SMTP:acschembri at HOTMAIL.COM]
Sent:   10 February 2000 22:19
To:     SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Subject:        Re: "Accent"

Tessa,

You mention the term "accent" in relation to signed languages. I am
wondering - is this term used to refer to the different varieties of BSL in
Britain? I have had a discussion with two BSL/English interpreters living
in
Australia who have told me that people in the UK often talk about having a
Scottish BSL "accent". They were, however, unable to provide me with any
systematic examples of how the "accent" is different in Scottish versus
English BSL. Instead, they provided me with lexical differences. I am
wondering, do people in Britain use the term "accent" to refer to these
differences?

Adam Schembri

PS To add my two cents worth, I'm familiar with signs meaning VOICE in
Auslan produced with both a B and a V handshape, but we don't appear to
have
the sign Bencie refers to.

_____________________________________________________________

Adam Schembri
Renwick College
Private Bag 29
Parramatta NSW
2124 AUSTRALIA
Ph (voice/TTY): (61 2) 9872 0303
Fax: (61 2) 9873 1614



>From: Tessa <n9553109 at WLV.AC.UK>
>Reply-To: "For the discussion of linguistics and signed languages."
>      <SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
>To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
>Subject: Re: Fw: Nortel Networks commercial
>Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 17:37:59 -0000
>
>Sorry to disagree, but I am most familiar with 'Voice' being signed in BSL
>with a V-hand, not a G hand, although it is not bent.  This is equivalent
>to the sign for 'accent' relating to speech (there is a different sign for
>accents in sign language).  Have I just confused the issue completely??
>
>Tessa Slaughter
>