Definitions of terms (RE: [SLLING-L] use of sign language in Jordan)

Fri Sep 28 00:34:50 UTC 2007

Hello Everyone -
Thank you, Kathy, for the definitions below, and to everyone, for a  
very interesting day. I really enjoyed reading all your messages ;-)

Technically, at first glance anyway, SignWriting doesn't fit any of  
the definitions below...

SignWriting has several forms...there is a handwritten form, and a  
shorthand form, and a printed formal writing you see in published  
books...so there are many sides to SignWriting and some of the uses  
are more phonetic than others...some are quite abbreviated and could  
hardly be called phonetic...

So maybe SignWriting, which is a large writing system for multiple  
signed languages, cannot be categorized with any of those  
definitions...it is unique.

No matter what, all of the SignWriting symbols, whether they are  
shorthand, or handwriting or the printed form, can be sorted by SSS  
and they all write body movement, rather than what is being said.  
SignWriting does not write concepts. It writes the way the body looks  
while signing, and the meanings attached to the writing depend on the  
reader, and if they know that signed language or not...

SignWriting is used differently around the world...and from group to  
group as well...

A SignWriting document is more phonetic or phonemic, depending on a  
series of factors: the culture, the signed language being written,  
the intent of the document, and the author or scribe. For example, in  
Germany, Stefan Woehrmann, who teaches SignWriting to his Deaf  
students at the Osnabruck School for the Deaf, writes with many Mouth  
Movement symbols, because he is writing the Mouthing that is a part  
of the German culture, at least at his school...

So when you look at the German Literature Puddle online, you will see  
a large amount of Facial Expression symbols and Mouth Movement  
Symbols, because that is Stefan's style of writing with  
SignWriting...It is very detailed writing:

German Sign Language Literature Puddle
http://www.signbank.org/SignPuddle1.5/index.php?ui=8&sgn=26
(to see Stefan's documents, click on Search by Words, and type an  
asterisk in the search field)

But in the US, writers in ASL may not choose to write all those  
mouthing-related movements... because culturally it is different.  
Emphasis is often placed elsewhere in the writing of ASL signs. So if  
you visited the ASL Literature Puddle you will see the SignWriting  
looks different than the German literature...

American Sign Language Literature Puddle
http://www.signbank.org/SignPuddle1.5/index.php?ui=1&sgn=5
(take a look at Cat in the Hat by Cherie Wren)

And recently I am learning a lot about sorting by SSS...we are able  
to speed the process now because of better software, and I have  
started to notice patterns in writing ASL signs I had never seen  
before...When we look up 2000 signs by SSS, we skim down the pages of  
the dictionary to find the sign we want, searching by handshape, palm  
orientation, contact and so forth...and I have noticed that there are  
little groupings of symbols that appear over and over again...for  
example...all the signs that have the pattern "touch-move-down-touch"  
are automatically lumped together in the sequencing, and there are so  
many signs that have that configuration...We can search for "symbol- 
frequency" now in our software and it is quite surprising to see that  
there are consistent patterns of certain symbols grouped together...

I wonder if those are not something equivalent to consonants and  
vowels?...I am not a linguist, so I would love to discuss this with  
someone privately or publicly, if anyone is interested in some of the  
patterns I have found...you probably already know about these  
patterns very well...I have just bumped into them through the sorting  
dictionaries by SSS process...

I personally feel SignWriting is alphabetic, but that does not mean  
that I am disagreeing with any of you...whatever is best to call it  
is fine with me....Terminology changes and evolves, just like writing  
systems!

Val ;-)

------------------

On Sep 27, 2007, at 7:40 AM, Kathy H. wrote:
>
> abecedary
> a text listing the characters of an abjad or alphabet in their  
> traditional or standard order (even if that order does not begin  
> with the equivalent of a and b)
>
> abjad
> a type of writing system that denotes only consonants
>
> abugida
> a type of writing system whose basic characters denote consonants  
> followed by a particular vowel, and in which diacritics denote the  
> other vowels
>
> allograph
> conditioned or free variant of a character, e.g., the distinctive  
> forms of five Hebrew letters used at the end of a word  
> (conditioned), the differing forms of a/a, g/g that can be  
> intermixed in handwriting (free)
>
> alphabet
> a type of writing system that denotes consonants and vowels
>
> alphasyllabary
> a writing system in which vowels are denoted by subsidiary symbols  
> not all of which occur in a linear order (with relation to the  
> consonant symbols) that is congruent with their temporal order in  
> speech
>
> character
> 1.  general term for any self-contained element of a writing system;
> 2.  conventional term for a unit of the Chinese writing system in  
> East Asian scripts
>
> consonant
> a brief portion of an utterance in which obstruction to the air  
> stream is created in the vocal tract; also, a character designating  
> such a sound
>
> cursive
> flowing, showing the influence of the motion of the hand in  
> writing, often with joined characters
>
> diacritic
> a mark added to a character to indicate a modified pronunciation  
> (or sometimes to distinguish homophonous words)
>
> digraph
> a pair of letters denoting a single sound, e.g. ph, sh
>
> ductus
> an individual style of handwriting, characteristic of a small group  
> of scribes or sometimes a single person
>
> featural script
> a type of writing system whose characters denote phonetic features
>
> grammatogeny
> the invention of a writing system
>
> grapheme
> term intended to designate a unit of a writing system, parallel to  
> phoneme and morpheme, but in practice used as a synonym for letter,  
> diacritic, character (2) or sign (2)
>
> iconic
> of a sign, bearing some nonconventional, visual relationship to  
> what is referred to
>
> letter
> a self-contained unit of an abjad, alphabet, or abugida
>
> ligature
> a composite character in which the components are recognizable,  
> e.g. Ï, {
>
> logogram
> a character that denotes the meaning but not the pronunciation of a  
> morpheme
>
> logosyllabary
> a type of writing system whose characters denote morphemes, and a  
> subset of whose characters can be used for their phonetic syllabic  
> values without regard to their semantic values
>
> morphophonemic
> of orthography, spellings that remain constant when a morpheme  
> undergoes changes in pronunciation (photograph, photography,  
> photographic)
>
> orthography
> conventional spelling of texts, and the principles therefor
>
> script
> in this book, equivalent to writing system
>
> sign
> 1.      a unit in a communicative system comprising a signifier  
> (what carries the meaning) and a signified (what is meant);
> 2.      conventional term for a self-contained unit of cuneiform  
> script
>
> signary
> general term for a determined collection of characters (or signs),  
> used to avoid specifying abjad, alphabet, etc.
>
> writing system
> a signary together with an associated orthography
>
>
>
> SOME TYPES OF WRITING SYSTEMS
>
> abjad:  A type of writing system that denotes only consonants
>
> abugida:  A type of writing system whose basic characters denote  
> consonants followed by a particular vowel, and in which diacritics  
> denote the other vowels
>
> alphabet:  A type of writing system that denotes consonants and vowels
>
> alphasyllabary:  A writing system in which vowels are denoted by  
> subsidiary symbols not all of which occur in a linear order (with  
> relation to the consonant symbols) that is congruent with their  
> temporal order in speech
>
> featural script:  A type of writing system whose characters denote  
> phonetic features
>
> logosyllabary:  A type of writing system whose characters denote  
> morphemes, and a subset of whose characters can be used for their  
> phonetic syllabic values without regard to their semantic values

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