Research into Digital Representations of Sign Language

Tue Oct 11 17:07:40 UTC 2005

Saduf,

i'm based in Belfast but i'm usually in London once a month or two - 
maybe i can meet up with you and Trevor - Trevor is a cool guy.

im quite glad that youre quite interested in doing some research on 
Val's signwriting - there are many notation systems - but we are trying 
to make Val's signwriting made available to everyone - thats why im 
having one of my senior tutors trained in this - hopefully with some 
help from our extraordinary Val and our lovely Ingvild - that way Paula 
can go all over the UK and Ireland training people how to use 
SignWriting and all that! :-)

If u can afford it, I suggest you to go and visit Kathleen & Sara's 
school in Brussels - they're SUCH lovely teachers (Kathleen non-deaf 
Sara deaf - i mistook Kathleen to be deaf!) and they use SignWriting in 
their school teaching SignWriting to the kids there - before my visit 
there, I was sceptic about the system - but after that, im a convert!!! 
:-)

We hope to have the European Sign Writers Organisation conference next 
year or so...the possible location is University College London in 
Central London - its not decided yet.

Shane

On 11 Oct 2005, at 01:43, Saduf Naqvi wrote:

> Hi Val,
>
> thank you for all the links, I shall be sitting with a big mug of 
> coffee working
> through them all in the morning, (its 1:30am in the UK so will be off 
> to bed in
> a bit)
>
> I have been reading about SignWriting and it is a fascinating system, 
> I have to
> admit when looking at the notations, even without prior knowledge of 
> the system
> I can work most of them out, the visual connection is very strong and 
> I can see
> how this can translate well with the signing community.  People have 
> spoken very
> highly of it, and I believe it can be used in many places here in the 
> UK
> (further research suggestions for my work!)
>
> I will probably write again in the morning, after I absorb some 
> signwriting
> information!
>
> take care
>
> Saduf
>
>
> Quoting Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Miss Saduf Naqvi,
> S.Naqvi at gold.ac.uk
> Research Student,
> Goldsmiths College - University of London,
> New Cross,
> London,
> SE14 6NW,
> 020-7919-7462
>
>