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

[C. Tijsseling, R. van Kempen.]

>> 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).


>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.

Same in the Netherlands. I remember when my deaf father had to learn
fingerspelling as he became blind. This was about 15 years ago and in the
beginning, the ASL-spelling was used. We felt very uncomfortable using the
American spelling for 'T'.  As children we had to wash our hands when making
'dirty' signs, so we were struggling with the habit to grab for the soap
everytime a word with a 'T' in it came up.

Nowadays, SLN has a different handshape for 'T' whereas the rest is very
similar to ASL, just like FBSL. We are a happy people now. :-)

Corrie Tijsseling.