Writing mouthing of words with SSW

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
February 26, 2006

Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:
> I personally do not care but I observe (or at least try to ) as  
> open minded
> as possible any SL performance and if there is something like this
> "mouthing" well I think it should be a part of the transcription.

For a performance....For Movement Writing purposes... I think that is  
great! But when it comes to CULTURE, a movement scribe cannot always  
know what is important and what is not important to a sign if they  
are writing a sign language they do not know, from another country  
with another spoken language...The fact that two Deaf people born  
into the same Deaf family mouth differently, and they are both  
perfectly understood in the Deaf and hearing ASL Community, shows  
that the mouthing is not as important as other grammatical features  
on the face...for writing ASL that is...but writing CASE you are  
right...maybe mouthing could be important there...

>
>
> On the other hand - you can bet that it depends on the dialog  
> partner! And
> even my transcription depends on the reader. Higher competence in both
> language systems will lead to less Mundbilder.


Really? Think so? That is very interesting and actually points to  
what I said above...there are some facial aspects in ASL that must be  
written or it can be misunderstood...so there is no choice in those  
cases...but Mundbilder (mouthing of words silently while signing),  
are not required for understanding in written ASL...in fact they  
could take away from learning to write more important facial  
expressions related to ASL grammar...

Important - Everyone write as you feel is best...No one is telling  
you what to write...SignWriting is freedom to express yourself as you  
see fit...We are all learning together...

Val ;-)