SL and other codes

[Albert Bickford]

In ASL, I've seen modification of at least one sign for another country as it was incorporated in ASL.  The sign for Mexico in Mexican Sign Language (you can see a drawing at http://www.sil.org/mexico/lenguajes-de-signos/00i-signed-languages.htm) consists of a V handshape, fingers pointing contralaterally, palm down, starting above the bridge of the nose near the forehead, and moving forward in an arc once, with some pronation during the arc.  (The folk etymology is the shape of the brim of a Mexican sombrero.)  When used in ASL (happens fairly often here in Arizona), it is often pronounced with two short movements rather than one longer one.  I'm not sure why this is--many name signs for people have a double movement in them, but that is less common for names of places.  The change doesn't seem to be forced by the phonological system--as far as I know there is no constraint in ASL that would forbid one single longer movement.

Albert

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dan Parvaz 
  To: A list for linguists interested in signed languages 
  Sent: September 6, 2007 8:10 AM
  Subject: Re: [SLLING-L] SL and other codes


  (Ducking) Alright, already! So it's not just an ASL thing. That, at least, seems to have changed. It has resulted in proliferation of various signs which are alleged to be the "real" sign for the country. Examples which come to mind are CHINA (both the correct country sign and the sign for "Beijing") and PARIS (the "Eiffel Tower" sign used in International Gesture and the initialized sign used in LSF). 

  The other point is that these signs are not yet full members of the lexicon. When that does happen, though, the question is does the inclusion of hundreds of new signs from other signed languages have any influence on the local SL phonology? Or are the signs modified for native pronunciation? Or are phonoligal rules really not that different across SLs? If so, what are *those* implications? 

  -Dan.





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