External phonological change

[Karlin, Ben]

I learned it as a hearing gesture from neighbors who were gypsies.  They
taught it to me as a curse.  I subsequently saw it in an 'Italian' Sign
Language book (not LIS but a joke book owned by a Deaf ASL-using friend).

Ben Karlin

>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: G Sapountzaki, Deaf Studies
>  [mailto:Galini.Sapountzaki at BRISTOL.AC.UK]
>  Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 9:50 AM
>  To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
>  Subject: Re: External phonological change
>
>
>  >
>  > According to Morris et al., the tooth-flick gesture is
>  commonly used
>  > to mean "nothing" (in the Levant it's used to mean
>  "broke") or as a
>  > hostile gesture. In Greece, the hostile meaning appears to be
>  > dominant. Is that your impression?
>  >
>  > Cheers,
>  >
>  > Dan.
>  >
>  The sign I mentioned has been described to me without any
>  emotional/ subjective interpretation, but simply as an
>  emphatic way of negation, used nowadays only by very old
>  signers. Of course I will have to go back to native signers
>  and ask them (I am not in Greece at the moment) but note
>  that I am not aware of it as a gesture used by the hearing
>  in Greece - I was surprised to see that there is a gesture
>  similar to it in France and elsewhere in Europe.
>
>
>  Galini
>
>
>
>
>  ----------------------
>  G Sapountzaki, Deaf Studies
>  Galini.Sapountzaki at bristol.ac.uk
>