typology - sign languages

Fri Mar 22 23:02:46 UTC 2013

Hi Maria
Trevor may have a version of this paper on his academia.edu website that you can download .
Trevor and I discuss the relationship between Auslan, BSL, NZSL and Maltese Sign Language in our book (Johnston & Schembri, 2007) - I'd be happy to send you a copy if you don't have one. Please note that understanding the relationships between these three sign language varieties is still a work in progress - until we have better documentation for all the varieties of BSL itself in the UK, for example, we won't have  a complete picture of its relationship to Auslan.
The relationship between the sign language you work on, Maltese Sign Language, and others that have had some contact with BSL really needs more work. Recently at a conference in Hong Kong, I met deaf people from Sri Lanka and Fiji for the first time, and I was struck by the relationships between these varieties and the BSL family too. In the case of Fijian Sign Language, there's been very strong influence from Auslan, while Sri Lankan signers make full use of the two–handed British manual alphabet, just we do in Australia (in some parts of South Asia, the two-handed alphabet is used, but with different hand configurations for the vowels).
I'm hoping that TISLR 12 in Melbourne in 2016 will include a workshop on sign languages in the BSL sign language family and those with some BSL contact, so that we can better understand the genetic relationships between these sign languages.
Saħħa! :-)
Adam

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From: Guido Joachim <Guido.Joachim at SIGN-LANG.UNI-HAMBURG.DE<mailto:Guido.Joachim at SIGN-LANG.UNI-HAMBURG.DE>>
Reply-To: linguists interested in signed languages <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
Date: Saturday, 23 March 2013 2:11
To: "SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>" <SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU<mailto:SLLING-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU>>
Subject: Re: typology - sign languages

Hallo,

they refer to this paper:

Johnston, Trevor: BSL, Auslan and NZSL: three signed languages or one? In: Baker, Ann / van den Bogaerde, Beppie / Crasborn, Onno (eds): Cross-linguistic perspectives in sign language research. Selected papers from TISLR 2000. Hamburg : Signum (2003) - S. 47-70

Guido
Am 22.03.2013 um 15:47 schrieb Mark A. Mandel:

Write to editor_ethnologue at sil.org<mailto:editor_ethnologue at sil.org>. I've generally found them responsive to questions and problem reports.

-- Mark

On 13.03.22, at 08:35, MARIA GALEA wrote:

...

an additional problem I have is that on the webpages of Ethnologue that
talk of BSL, AUSLAN and New Zealand SL - they refer to Johnston 2003 - but
this is not listed in their bibliography list. Does anyone know which
exact work (by Trevor Johnston) this may refer to?

Many thanks!
Maria Galea

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