[USA-L News] British Deaf Association in controversial posterdrive

[Mieke Van Herreweghe]

> By the way, the handshape for the ASL fingerspelled "T" is a taboo
handshape
> in JSL (and in Japanese society at large including both deaf and hearing
> population).
>
> Many Japanese learners of ASL experience difficulty (at least in the
> beginning) pronounceing ASL "T," ASL "toilet," etc.

That's funny! The same holds true for Belgian hearing society and
Flemish-Belgian Sign Language (FBSL). That is why FBSL has a different
handshape for fingerspelled T, whereas the rest of the hand alphabet is very
similar to ASL.
>
>
>
> In short, it means that taboo handshapes differ from a sign language to
> another.

But apparently they can be similar too, because I had never expected this on
the other side of the globe (at least from my perspective)!

Mieke Van Herreweghe
Gent University
English Department
Rozier 44
9000 Gent
Belgium