[TEACHASL] Sign Language Family Map

[m. miles]

SL 'Family
Map' - historical note

 

{in the time taken to
formulate notes below, parts were overtaken by other posts...  But I'm unable to read Pituk's ASL
'explanation', and anyway doubt there's much conflict with points below..}

 

In the extensive 'family map', the name in the lower left corner was not legible;
and Adam Sch. noted that the map (or similar) had been in circulation for a while.  I was interested to get a better
fix on the date/period, so contacted Folio Online (in Cape Town), whose title
appeared seeming to have supplied the graphic, with name lookingd vaguely like Ronald, Randal or Kandal, and
maybe Frank or Patuk, Pitak, but just out of focus).  Helpful response from Johan Botha of
Folio Online < www.folio-online.co.za , with amusing graphics > -- the
'map' wasn't  theirs, they had found and shared it. But Botha made
further search and gave "Randal Pituk" as the credited designer.  Open web info on Pituk:  a current Deaf activist, designer, artist,
screen printer, guide and mentor to deaf students in many capacities, having
studied at RochesterIT / NTID, name suggests possible family links to East
Europe /Hungary.
No apparent publications on SL histories or evidence of linguistic links,
genealogies etc -- but presumably accessed that side at RIT/NTID
libraries.  {I belong to no social
network sites, so did not try to access P's address and contact directly.}

 

I'd guess that the past
20 {?} years of serious and hectic progress in establishing SL linguistics, and
the early years of looking critically at 'etymologies' of signs, links,
'connections' (A. Bickford's cautious suggestion!) and uncovering the
complexities and uncertainties (of which I have only slight knowledge
via Ulrike Zeshan and work on Ottoman SL / TID) must have given a near-fatal
blow, or inserted a substantial 'discontinuity', to publishable academic
research of  'Grand or Global Family Genealogies', especially such as might appear to
embody a strongly Eurocentric theme. Sketches of 'fascinating possible links'
may be the limit. {However, my guess might not be as good as that of someone
with a lot closer involvement in the nitty-gritty, so do pile in, any critics! :)

 

I'm not too surprised
that Pituk's design omits Ottoman / Turkish SL, for which cumulative
documentary evidence through 500+ years has been open online the past four years at
www.independentliving.org/miles200907.html    Some of that evidence, shows Ottoman SL (quite likely originating in two
interacting Istanbuli forms: 'Palace' and 'City Deaf Bath-house') being carried
both by Provincial Governors' deaf servants, and by Sultan's personal deaf
messengers, criss-crossing major cities of the Ottoman Empire, where it would
very likely have intercoursed as a high-status 'Metropolitan' SL, with local
SLs, with an exchange of colour, vocabulary, and zippiness. (The cannier
hearing diplomats soon realised that their deaf servants were usually the first
to know what was going on behind the scenes. Early knowledge was vital to
career, even survival).  Those suggested
nodes and interchanges would greatly complicate efforts to track simple
genealogical SL relations around the Mediterranean, North Africa and Eastern Europe. At the same time, it gives some prospect
that a lot more evidence may be lying unclassified in obscure official archives and
document dumps across the region, in some languages less familiar to many
current researchers.  (Maybe even some
word-lists and graphic indications?  But the rule might be:  find elaborate word lists from
static sub-linguistic monastic codes; don't find them for fast-moving Deaf  SLs ?)

 

m. miles





                          
                          
                          

                          
                            

 		 	   		  
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