Research into Digital Representations of Sign Language

Tue Oct 11 00:04:08 UTC 2005

SignWriting List
October 10, 2005

On Oct 10, 2005, at 3:31 PM, Saduf Naqvi wrote:
> Don't worry I didn't take offence, I completely understand your  
> concern, and
> welcome your feedback.
>

Hello Stuart, Saduf and Everyone -
No problems, Stuart...There are no worries from me either...I agree  
that it is easy to mis-use the terms American Sign Language, or  
British Sign Language, when those two terms do not just mean the  
signs used within the US, Canada and Great Britain, but rather refer  
to the grammars of those languages as well...The terms should be used  
to refer to the native signed languages of the area, and not just  
glossing email!!  But the glosses of individual signs, even though  
they may not produce a true ASL or BSL, still have stimulated some  
people to learn some SignWriting symbols...so it has some value...and  
I know that in the future, we will have email that can be typed  
directly in SignWriting symbols, just like I am typing this English  
with symbols directly for this email message...but even then, not  
every typist will know the good grammar of BSL...that will take time  
to learn how to type in the grammar of naturally-evolved BSL...

So Saduf...I have not been reading every email because I just got  
back from an appointment but in summary, before the advent of  
computers, we had a group of Deaf people here in California where I  
live, who worked with me, and they were mostly native ASL signers, or  
at least grew up in residential Deaf schools so their signing was  
their first mode of communication...and we wrote signs by hand  
because there were no computers and we had a real writing system  
directly in the movements of signed languages, without using any  
English glosses or any spoken language at all...

And in Spain, they have a novel written in Spanish Sign Language in  
SignWriting without any spoken language at all in the entire book, so  
I believe deeply that we have a true writing system, even if it is  
used differently in different places around the world...SignWriting  
is used in Germany to teach both signs and spoken German with  
success, and it is used in Brazil too, and in France, Belgium,  
Nicaragua, Norway...oh...gosh...so many wonderful places...there is  
no way I can tell you all the projects in one message...

Recently I had a great phone conversation with Pastor Dettloff from  
the Deaf Church in Michigan, where they use SignWriitng in their  
Bible Study...and they LOVE SignPuddle because different church  
members can add their own signs to the dictionary online...and they  
have some people in their church who really read  
SignWriting...without it they could not read the Bible passages  
apparently, so that is nice to know the tool is useful....

Here are some of the SignPuddles online:

39 SignPuddle Dictionaries
http://signbank.org/signpuddle

1. American Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-US

2. Arabic-Nations Sign Languages
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-AE

3. Australian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-AU

4. Brazilian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-BR

5. British Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-GB

6. Catalonian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-ES-ct

7. Colombian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CO

8. Czech Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CZ

9. Danish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-DK

10. Ethiopian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-ET

11. Finnish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-FI

12. Flemish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-BE-nl

13. French Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-FR

14. French-Swiss Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CH-fr

15. German Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-DE

16. German-Swiss Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CH-de

17. Greek Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-GR

18. International Signs
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-WO

19. Irish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-IE

20. Italian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-IT

21. Italian-Swiss Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CH-it

22. Japanese Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-JP

23. Malaysian Sign Languages
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-MY

24. Maltese Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-MT

25. Mexican Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-MX

26. Netherlands Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-NL

27. Nicaraguan Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-NI

28. Nigerian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-NG

29. Northern Ireland Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-NorthernIreland

30. Norwegian Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-NO

31. Philippine Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-PH

32. Polish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-PL

33. Portuguese Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-PT

34. Quebec Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-CA-fr

35. Signuno-Esperanto Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-EO

36. Spanish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-ES

37. Swedish Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-SE

38. Taiwan Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-TW

39. Walloon Sign Language
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/sgn-BE-fr

Instruction

How to Use SignMaker
http://signbank.org/signpuddle/help

How to Use SignPuddle
http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs3/
sw0226-SignPuddle-May2005.pdf