[sw-l] Gestuno and Signuno

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
September 30, 2004

Signuno wrote:
>> My former
>> boss at the University
>> of Copenhagen worked on Gestuno when I was working
>> with him in
>> 1974-1975. His name is Dr. Lars von der Lieth...
>
> The Signuno dictionary might amuse him...


Lars is open to so many new ideas and is wonderful to talk to...

In the 1970's everyone seemed hopeful that Gestuno and even Esperanto,
would become truly-spoken or signed languages. But Gestuno slowly fell
out of favor or interest, because it seems that naturally-evolved
languages are used more. I have worked with Deaf people
internationally...I was lucky enough to experience the beautiful and
natural way Deaf people communicate with each other, when they are in a
group from different countries...

In 1990 I traveled to Denmark with a Deaf co-worker, Paulette Sottak.
Paulette taught SignWriting to Deaf people from the Netherlands,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden etc...in that workshop...and I taught the
hearing group. Then we got together as two groups, at the end of the
seminar, and Paulette interpreted for me...and I was stunned at the way
she flexibly-changed her ASL and suddenly the Deaf group was
communicating in some kind of wonderful international way that only the
participants could understand!

Later Paulette wrote about her experiences in SignWriting! And you can
read the whole article on the web:

Fond Memories
http://www.signwriting.org/deaf/fond/fond01.html

Val ;-)