[sw-l] Please translate into sign writing...

[Adam Frost]

Val, I know that you are going to think that I am crazy with my busy
schedule and everything else that I am doing with SignWriting as it is, but
I am up to the challenge! The translation of all of this text will take me a
while, but this is what I like to do the most. :-) (Of course, if there is
anyone else that want to do it as well, we can compare note! Sometimes it is
good to have more than one brain on translations.) Signuno, do you want me
to send you a copy of it via email when I am finished? (It might be a large
email. "wink-wink")

And Val, I will have some more of the definitions done just as soon as I can
sit at the computer at my home. (I am currently at school.) Or could I use
Stephen's SignMaker? That might be better since I am hardly home.

Adam
:-D


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Valerie Sutton" <sutton at signwriting.org>
Reply-To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
Subject: Re: [sw-l] Please translate into sign writing...
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 08:34:44 -0800

SignWriting List
November 3, 2004

Signuno wrote:
>I just read a call for more translations!  Please help
>raise the prestige of sign languages and sign writing
>by translating your language version of
>http://lingvo.org/2/3 (the English version is
>http://lingvo.org/en/2/3) into sign language using
>sign writing.


Dear SW List, and Signuno!
Thank you for thinking of this project!...smile... ;-)

I hope someone can consider it...It is a big project. Translating around 2
pages of spoken language, into any signed language, and then typing it in
SignWriting is no small task. I personally cannot do it, because I do not
know ASL well enough...

Here is the English version Signuno mentions above....


>http://lingvo.org/en/2/3)

We, members of the worldwide movement for the promotion of Esperanto,
address this Manifesto to all governments, international organizations and
people of good will; declare our unshakeable commitment to the objectives
set out here; and call on all organizations and individuals to join us in
working for these goals.
For more than a century Esperanto, which was launched in 1887 as a project
for an auxiliary language for international communication and quickly
developed into a rich living language in its own right, has functioned as a
means of bringing people together across the barriers of language and
culture. The aims that inspire the users of Esperanto are still as important
and relevant as ever. Neither the worldwide use of a few national languages,
nor advances in communications technology, nor the development of new
methods of language teaching is likely to result in a fair and effective
language order based on the following principles, which we hold to be
essential.
  DEMOCRACY Any system of communication which confers lifelong privileges on
some while requiring others to devote years of effort to achieving a lesser
degree of competence is fundamentally antidemocratic. While Esperanto, like
any language, is not perfect, it far outstrips other languages as a means of
egalitarian communication on a world scale.
We maintain that language inequality gives rise to communicative inequality
at all levels, including the international level. We are a movement for
democratic communication.
  GLOBAL EDUCATION All ethnic languages are bound to certain cultures and
nations. For example, the child who learns English learns about the culture,
geography and political systems of the English-speaking world, primarily the
United States and the United Kingdom. The child who learns Esperanto learns
about a world without borders, where every country is home.
We maintain that education in any language is bound to a certain view of the
world. We are a movement for global education.
  EFFECTIVE EDUCATION Only a small percentage of foreign-language students
attain fluency in the target language. In Esperanto, fluency is attainable
even through home study. Various studies have shown that Esperanto is useful
as a preparation for learning other languages. It has also been recommended
as a core element in courses in language awareness.
We maintain that the difficulties in learning ethnic languages will always
be a barrier for many students who would benefit from knowing a second
language. We are a movement for effective language learning.
  MULTILINGUALISM The Esperanto community is almost unique as a worldwide
community whose members are universally bilingual or multilingual. Every
member of the community has made the effort to learn at least one foreign
language to a communicative level. In many cases this leads to a love and
knowledge of several languages and to broader personal horizons in general.
We maintain that the speakers of all languages, large and small, should have
a real chance of learning a second language to a high communicative level.
We are a movement for providing that opportunity to all.
  LANGUAGE RIGHTS The unequal distribution of power between languages is a
recipe for permanent language insecurity, or outright language oppression,
for a large part of the world's population. In the Esperanto community the
speakers of languages large and small, official and unofficial meet on equal
terms through a mutual willingness to compromise. This balance of language
rights and responsibilities provides a benchmark for developing and judging
other solutions to language inequality and conflict.
We maintain that the wide variations in power among languages undermine the
guarantees, expressed in many international instruments, of equal treatment
regardless of language. We are a movement for language rights.
  LANGUAGE DIVERSITY National governments tend to treat the great diversity
of languages in the world as a barrier to communication and development. In
the Esperanto community, however, language diversity is experienced as a
constant and indispensable source of enrichment. Consequently every
language, like every biological species, is inherently valuable and worthy
of protection and support.
We maintain that communication and development policies which are not based
on respect and support for all languages amount to a death sentence for the
majority of languages in the world. We are a movement for language
diversity.
  HUMAN EMANCIPATION Every language both liberates and imprisons its users,
giving them the ability to communicate among themselves but barring them
from communication with others. Designed as a universally accessible means
of communication, Esperanto is one of the great functional projects for the
emancipation of humankind -- one which aims to let every individual citizen
participate fully in the human community, securely rooted in his or her
local cultural and language identity yet not limited by it.
We maintain that exclusive reliance on national languages inevitably puts up
barriers to the freedoms of expression, communication and association. We
are a movement for human emancipation.