Encyclopedia of Linguistics

[Nobu@IDGS]

on 00.9.13 6:07 AM, Adam Schembri at acschembri at HOTMAIL.COM wrote:
> I am not sure what you mean when you mention the "ghettoization" of signed
> language linguistics. I have never come across a spoken language linguist
> who is not interested in what could be learnt from the study of signed
> languages, but I have met many who are very misinformed.

That's not true in Japan.  Most of the Japanese linguists dealing only with
spoken (and/or dead written) languages:

1. are not very much interested in signed languages.

2. think signed languages are secondary codes of spoken languages just like
Braille, drum languages, etc.

3. think signed languages are artificial languages like Esperanto, which
cannot "drift (a la Sapir)" or change spontaneously as time goes by.

(4. Probably at least they don't think signed languages are all the same
globally as some of the non-linguists do.)

We still have a looooong way to go here.... (oops) there in Japan.

Nobukatsu "Nobu" Minoura
--
Nobukatsu Minoura
Institute of German Sign Language, University of Hamburg
Binderstrasse 34, 20146 Hamburg, Germany (till Aug. 2001)
Fax: ++49 40 428 38 61 09, Mobile phone: ++49 174 256 94 49