PROJECT AIMS TO PUT SIGN LANGUAGE IN WRITING

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
July 7, 2005

A good friend just informed me of an article about the Summer  
Institute of Linguistics and Stuart Thiessen, just published on the  
web in deafweekly.com....Glad to see your work is getting some  
attention, Stuart!...Val ;-)

Here's the article:

deafweekly.com
http://www.deafweekly.com/current.htm

PROJECT AIMS TO PUT SIGN LANGUAGE IN WRITING
The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks has offered a Summer  
Institute
for Linguistics program for over 50 years, and this summer "the  
emphasis is
on sign language," said SIL director Albert Bickford. People from 10
different countries are working at UND this summer to put the grammar of
various forms of sign language into writing. The goal of the linguistic
group is to reduce all spoken languages of the world into writing,  
Bickford
told the Grand Forks Herald, and that includes sign language. It's  
not an
easy task -- there are more than 150 forms of sign language worldwide  
-- but
it's not all work: faculty, staff and students take meals together and
socialize with volleyball, parties and camping. Graduate student Stuart
Thiessen enjoys being around people who know sign language. "This is one
place where I can tell a joke and the people will laugh," he said.