Sociolinguistics Symposium 14 and the standardisation of sign languages

[Angus B. Grieve-Smith]

        I'm very interested in the topic that Myriam discussed, but
there's a lot I don't know.  I figure I could wait until next April and go
to Ghent, or ask now.  And if I ask now and go to Ghent later, maybe I'll
be able to ask more informed questions when I'm there.  Unfortunately, it
looks like Myriam's gone on vacation.  Maybe there's someone else on the
list who knows about this?  Maybe there's a great book out there that I
should read?  Here are some of my questions:

        Myriam says in general terms that "those responsible for the
education of deaf childern and/or amongst policy makers considering a
possible recognition of the sign language" are requesting (even demanding)
standardization.  I don't get the impression that this is happening in the
US; if anything, the "standardization" they want is some form of Signed
English.  So:

1) Is it happening in the US?

2) Is it happening in Belgium or other countries?  I'd like to hear from
anyone who's involved in recognition advocacy who's been confronted with
demands like this.

3) Can someone point me to articles (news or academic) describing this
situation, or write to the list or to me privately?

4) I've seen this "ideology of the standard" applied to non-imperial
languages in the past.  The reasoning seems to be: imperial languages have
standards, therefore any language worth its salt has to have at least
one.  Where does this come from?  Can someone point me to a reference?  It
doesn't have to be in English.

5) Myriam's call seems to imply that she considers standardization
something that happens spontaneously whether or not there is an attempt to
plan/control it.  This makes a certain amount of sense, but I'd like to
see an argument in writing.

6) Standardization has been criticized by many (Anthony Lodge for French;
Deborah Cameron and Rosina Lippi-Green for English, and others).  My
interpretation of their arguments is that standardization is a by-product
of a social hierarchy that is only useful for keeping down those whose
language is further from the standard.  Have any of those arguments been
presented to these people demanding standardization?

7) I can't imagine a situation where the Deaf community in the US would
adopt as a standard the ASL of any poor and/or nonwhite group.  Rather, I
would expect it to adopt the ASL of middle-class whites, maybe on the East
Coast or in California.  (Is there "Gallaudet or NTID ASL" the way there
is "Oxford or Cambridge English"?)  Now imagine a poor Black Deaf girl
from rural Mississippi who now has to learn Gallaudet ASL on top of
everything else she has to deal with.  If you don't live in the US, I hope
you can imagine an analogous situation for your country: the Deaf child of
Turkish migrants living in the suburbs of Brussels, maybe.  Can
standardization be anything other than this?

8) Finally, the elephant in the room: most standardization happens when a
group adopts WRITING.  What have people said about writing in this regard?

        Thanks, Myriam, for raising these issues, and giving us the
opportunity to learn about them.  Hope you have a good vacation!

--
                                -Angus B. Grieve-Smith
                                Linguistics Department
                                University of New Mexico
                                grvsmth at unm.edu