Finnish Towns

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 18, 2003

Ingvild Roald in Norway wrote:
> Boat' is 45 degrees to the floor and 45 degrees to the wall - but we do
> sign it. But on the other hand, I agree that the 3/4 shaded hands are
> too
> cumbersome.


Dear SW List, and Ingvild!
I hope you enjoyed your trip to the US, Ingvild! We already have two
different kinds of symbols to write these positions in very very
accurate ways, without any new symbols...There has never been a problem
with writing the sign for roof or house in Norwegian Sign Language.
Those symbols have been in the writing system for years...I will
diagram them for you in the next message.

And by the way, we have these positions in American Sign Language
too...I suspect all signed languages do...so this is not really a
question of which signed languages use them...most do...I was just
cutting back on symbol-usage, but the wonderful thing about SignBank
for Research Use, due in March, 2004, is that you will have all the
symbols to choose from, so my choices will not hinder you, and you can
place those symbols into your Everyday set of symbols, if you prefer...

The only complaint Nitsu had was that the symbols she chose could not
be typed with SignWriter DOS, so I asked if everyone could please wait
until March, 2004, when I will have the huge symbolset ready to go for
SignBank...so it is just a matter of time.

So I want to make something very clear to everyone...I never wanted
those handshapes with the knuckles...that happened because Daniel was
pushing me. And because other programmers in the past have pushed
me...I am relieved that people will accept my decisions on not changing
the plain circle and square.

And the same goes with the handshapes used as roof and house and boat
in Norwegian Sign Language...I would prefer to use symbols that are
already in the writing system... but in this case, there was no way for
you to know about another symbol that was used in SignWriting in the
1980's. I want to bring it back now. It may be new to you, but old to
me - ha! So let me teach it now....and I had always planned to place in
in SignBank 2004...

Val ;-)