Sign-Spellings (SS) and Sign-Symbol-Sequence (SSS)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 20, 2001

SIGN-SPELLINGS (SS), Part 6

Sign-Spellings and the Sign-Symbol-Sequence are two different things:

1. SignSpelling is used to spell individual signs...
2. SignSymbolSequence is used to sort lists of signs, once they are spelled...

The SignSymbolSequence is equivalent to "alphabetical order" when using the Roman Alphabet...

But just as the Roman Alphabet does not force all words to start with a, in the same way, I do not use the SignSymbolSequence as my guide to "how we spell"...Spelling and sorting are two very different things.

So not all SignSpellings begin with handshapes, just as not all words begin with "a".

And SignSpelling for me is as "sequential as possible", just like words in the Roman Alphabet are...except we do have some special rules because of the unique nature of signed languages....and it is those special rules that we are trying to establish now.

I have decided to try this week to complete around 200 signs, in my SignBank US database. Every time I add a sign, I will post a web page, showing the spelling I chose for that sign and I will try to explain why....and I will post an announcement whenever I post a new page -

I hope you all are enjoying adding signs into SignBank - If there is anyone having trouble, feel free to tell us -

Val ;-)