ISO 639-3 code for International Sign Language--a good idea? How to proceed?

[Ulrike Zeshan]

I know that the World Federation of the Deaf recently did a survey among some linguists compiling views about the linguistic status of International Sign, so maybe someone can respond who has access to the results?
To me, International Sign is a pidgin, which has a semi-conventionalised status - less conventionalised than national sign languages typically are, but, to me, enough so that I would call it a language. It is certainly not something artificial, but has developed naturally in cross-sign interactions over time. This use of International Sign is, however, different from improvised ad hoc communication that may happen between any two individuals who do not have a sign language in common and try to communicate across linguistic boundaries in the signed medium. 
I have never heard of Signuno, did you mean to say that this is something devised artificially, in parallel with Esperanto?
Ulrike


Prof. Ulrike Zeshan
Director, International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Livesey House, LH212
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR12HE, UK
uzeshan at uclan.ac.uk
Ph. +44-1772-893104

>>> "Albert Bickford" <albert_bickford at sil.org> 02/11/07 3:16 PM >>>
In what I've read, Signuno and "International Sign" are generally regarded as distinct.  The relationship of Gestuno to International Sign is less clear--sometimes they are talked about as if they are different names for the same thing, sometimes they are talked about as different.  Not having personal experience with either, I'm in doubt.  

Is there anyone on this list who uses one or both on a regular basis who could comment?

Albert
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: GerardM 
  To: A list for linguists interested in signed languages 
  Sent: November 2, 2007 9:27 AM
  Subject: Re: [SLLING-L] ISO 639-3 code for International Sign Language--a good idea? How to proceed?


  Hoi,
  Esperanto does have a code and it does not make sense to lump all distinct international sign languages together in one ccode. When there is sufficient clarity what distinct languages exist and to what extend they are used, they can get their own codes. 

  I am quite happy to help where I can.

  Thanks,
      Gerard

   
  On 11/2/07, Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org> wrote: 
    Does Esperanto have a code? If it does, then these International
    signing systems could have a unique code too. Each International 
    signing system should have its own unique code...to lump them all
    together into one code representing "all International signing"
    doesn't make sense to me, because the codes are used to refer to a
    specific language, and the World Federation of the Deaf's
    International signing system is not the same as Signuno, for example...

    So it is a matter of pinning down what systems are current today and
    assigning different language codes to each one... 

    Val ;-)

    Valerie Sutton
    Sutton at SignWriting.org

    ----------


    On Nov 2, 2007, at 1:31 AM, GerardM wrote:

    > With Signundo having an active community, it can have its own 
    > language code as well. When Gestuno has no active community, it is
    > unlikely that there is an immediate need for an ISO 639 code for it.\
    >
    > Thanks,
    >      Gerard

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