[sw-l] Handwriting and idiosyncratic SW

[Ingvild Roald]

I agree. And how many strokes and twiches do we not have to write to make
the Roman letters?

Antonio Carlos' point, about the number of ways to write a single sign:
how long did it take for 'correct' spellings to get established in other
languages? We need patience, and practice, and more native signers as
writers and readers, and then we will have a real comparrisson.

Ingvild

sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu writes:
>I am so glad of this discussion.  Counting strokes and time, and space,
>is a good way to compare writing systems.
>
>Charles
>
>Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa <rocha at ATLAS.UCPEL.TCHE.BR> wrote:
>
>
>Hi Sandy,
>
>Good point! Counting symbols seems to be a good way of comparing the
>complexity of writing in two different alphabets.
>
>What I was refering to, however, is another point: how many different
>ways there are to write the English words you used? And how many
>different ways there are to write the signs you used?
>
>I bet there is just one single way to write each English word :-) But
>each signs, you may probably write in much more than two ways. To start
>with, many signs are as clear when written from the back of the signer,
>as when written from the top of the signer. And you always use some
>idiosyncratic criteria to eliminate symbols that could well be added.
>
>Look at the sign for DEAF in LIBRAS. Any of them is correct (as far
>as I can sign it, and write it). Which one is to be the preferred one?
>Which of them t! o put in a dictionary, to be automatically retrieved?
>Or,
>translated to another language? Or for the purpose of documenting the
>sign linguistically?
>
>When we start to study Valerie's manual, we tend to adopt implicitly
>here criteria for the simplification of signs. We tend to imitate her.
>But when we are faced with new signs, which Valerie has not written yet
>(like when you deal with a language other then ASL), or when somebody is
>learning SignWriting from another source, different from Valerie's
>stuff, then one faces the problem I'm referring to. (By the way, it is
>very interesting to observed the Deafs discussing hours on what is the
>best way to write a sign they have never signed before: it's a social
>negotiation! For every choice, there is always someone disagreeing for
>the lack of some aspect of the sign, or for the excess of unecessary
>symbols!).
>
>And when one faces the problem of teaching young children, one has
>! always the problem of which is the right balance between detail,
>easiness of writing, and easiness of reading. Again, it's a negotiation,
>between teacher and children, and between children themselves.
>
>Take this to the scale where many schools, in different parts of the
>country, are starting to write sign language, and we can see the size of
>the problem Deaf people have ahead of them, regarding the problem I was
>mentioning, of standardization of the writing of signs.
>
>All the best,
>
>Antônio Carlos
>
>