Importance of SL phonemes

[Steve Slevinski]

Hi Kathy,

Here's one possibility to resolve the linguistic terms for sign language.

We redefine "phone" as speech rather than voice.  This enables us to 
discuss language without specifying the type of articulation or the 
quality of the perception.

Aristotle said "Speech is the representation of the mind, and writing is 
the representation of speech."

Speech is articulated communication of language between people. 

Both sign languages and spoken languages can be spoken and perceived.

Speech has discrete units of auditory and visual information called 
segments. (A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics, David Crystal, 2003, 
pp. 408--409).

The smallest auditory segments of spoken language are called phones.

The smallest visual segments of spoken language are not classified, but 
actively used in lip reading.  It is unclear if they are phones or 
visual phone equivalents.  The shape of the mouth, teeth, tongue, lips 
can be meaningful, and so can the visible action that happens.

So if we understood phone to mean speech, rather than voice then...
Auditory phonemes are consonant, vowel, tone, or stress.
Visual phonemes are shape and action.
*Alternatively, visual phonemes could be shape, movement, and change.

Here is one representation of "hello" as can be spoken in ASL.
hello as spoken in asl

This is a non-linear writing system using graphemes: graphemes are 
written spatially in 2 dimensions.  One or more graphemes may be 
required to form a complete phoneme.  I see a shape phoneme and an 
action/movement phoneme.

Otherwise, we need to create visual equivalents for a lot of terms as 
well as more general terms that deal with speech in general.   Simply 
put, we need to be able to discuss language and communication without 
worrying about if it's spoken or signed.  Sign is speech and speech can 
be written.

-Steve

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