Functionality needed to open up the SignWriting dictionaries

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 3, 2007

Hello Gerard! and everyone ;-)

Thank you for this message. I remember you joined the SignWriting  
List under the Digest Mode. Unfortunately the Digest Mode has not  
been programmed to show the graphics that we attach to our email  
messages all the time. I would love to show you some of the ASL  
definitions that we are writing, not only on the web, but also in  
email, but I suddenly realized you would not be able to see the  
attached graphic if I answered this email with a graphic attached...

So if you want to see the SignWriting we are posting all the time,  
then you can switch to Normal Mail mode, by going to:

http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/cgi-bin/majordomo

and checking the box for sw-l

smile...

Anyway...your OmegaWiki project is a very exciting project. Why do  
you need pictures? Why not link to the sign with it's definition  
already written in SignPuddle 1.5?

In SignPuddle 1.5 we do have a place for spoken language definitions  
and also definitions written in signed languages about signed  
languages...

For example, if you search for the sign for "1" in the ASL SignPuddle:

http://www.signbank.org/SignPuddle1.5/searchword.php? 
ui=1&sgn=4&sid=4048,130&search=1&type=any

You will see the sign for "1" and written below it, is the definition  
in ASL, describing what the ASL sign means in ASL...see attached.  
These ASL definitions are written by Adam Frost, using SignText. The  
definition is the SignWriting below the sign, that is in the vertical  
column...like a paragraph in ASL about the sign-entry.


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On Jun 3, 2007, at 1:23 PM, GerardM wrote:

> Hoi,
> There was a question on how to open up the SignWriting dictionaries  
> for people who do not know the spoken languages that dominates the  
> environment of the spoken world surrounding a signing community.
>
> A dictionary without a definition is not really reliable, consider  
> for instance the word jaguar, it is an animal, an automotive brand,  
> two types of fighter jet, a protein of a fruitfly... You really  
> need a definition because otherwise homonyms are a problem that you  
> have not addressed.
>
> OmegaWiki is the project that I am particularly involved in. One of  
> the functionalities we hope to develop is linking a tags to  
> pictures and have them show the word for a particular concept in  
> the language of the user. This functionality would be particularly  
> aimed at Wikimedia Commons, the repository of digital material like  
> images and sound files of the Wikimedia Foundation. The idea is  
> that when a word is not available in the target language, the word  
> would be shown in English as English is the lingua franca of this  
> modern time.
>
> Now when we have developed this functionality to be used in another  
> project, it might be possible to associate the individual pictures  
> of the signing dictionaries in OmegaWiki with the concepts or the  
> "DefinedMeanings" of OmegaWiki. It would allow for people to find  
> the translations in sign languages. Given the concept, it would be  
> possible to find the equivalent signs in other sign languages.  
> Better still would be if we had a way to find signs in OmegaWiki.
>
> You may understand that I am thinking of the things we could do if  
> we had the resources to  make this happen.
> Connecting pictures in OmegaWiki to a DefinedMeaning is doable.. It  
> needs some minor programming
> This would be a hack because Unicode would be the obvious solution..
> Getting the tagging for Commons to work has been understood to be a  
> 25K Euro project
> When the issues are solved for Commons, programming this for the  
> signlanguage dictionaries should be more easy
> Getting the search algorithm in MediaWiki for SignWriting (=  
> SignBank) might be an opportunity.. No clue about the feasibility
> Thanks,
>     GerardM
>
> PS I am on a ration of one hour SignWriting a day .. that is why I  
> only now react :)