Flying Bird

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 21, 2004

Dear Sandy, and SW List Members:
Writing each position, as Stefan did, is the old way that we wrote as
far back as 1974, when transcribing Danish Sign Language from
video...But then we started using the Finger Motion symbols to make the
movement a movement, rather than a bunch of positions...so the Finger
Motion symbols I showed you before, are still applicable...they would
replace all those positions so you would have one thumb line, and the
Finger Motion near it...Takes less space when writing, but does assume
a little knowledge of the sign...Either way is fine...the positions are
nice for beginners....Val ;-)

PS. Yes. You are right. The G handshape, which you were trying to
write, handles palm facing differently...that is why I mis-read it and
thought there was a baby finger going up and down...because there is a
handshape that does do the palm facing you did...but it has a baby
finger...;-)

----------------------------


On Jun 21, 2004, at 11:10 AM, Sandy Fleming wrote:

> Hi Stefan, Val and list!
>
> Yes, as the pictures of the hands show, this is the movement I was
> looking
> for - perfect!
>
> My original handshape, that Val asked about, was intended to be the
> Group 9
> handshape from the manual, described as "Thumb Index Open Hinge - Hinge
> Opens More" - but I see now that I got the shading wrong and it's not
> the
> right handshape for this.
>
> Is it acceptable in writing, when showing a repeated movement, to just
> draw
> as many handshapes as required? Or is this sort of thing not normal in
> sign
> languages?
>
> The Spelling Guide suggests that signs should be written as 3
> syllables, or
> 4 at most, whereas this could be said to have seven or eight. Is that
> OK?
>
> Anyway, thanks for all the help, though I'd no idea there would be so
> much
> discussion! - it's really made me think - and especially Stephan's
> illustration of 3 spellings with identical effect! A bit like "pair",
> "pare"
> and "pear" in English, I suppose  :)
>
> Stefan wrote:
>
>>> Here are my three gifs - showing different birds - flying - .. ;-))
>>> one
> of
>>> them should be the one, the children had in mind -
>>> What do you think Sandy - and Valerie??
>
> I'd say spelling a2 is clearest but a1 is easiest to write by hand. I
> think
> we should expect handwriting style to be different from printing style
> anyway, so that's OK. At any rate they're all easy to read, where mine
> was
> completely mistaken!
>
> I'll be looking out for other things like this where there's a repeated
> movement between two handshapes - swimming octopus, anyone?  :>
>
> I honestly don't know whether I ever sign this way or not myself, with
> the
> way sign language can get quite graphic and creative sometimes. But
> thanks
> to SignWriting making me think about it, I can watch out for it in
> future!
>
> Sandy Fleming
> <flying_bird_sw_a.gif>