TrueType Font for Mundbildschrift?

[Stuart Thiessen]

I understand that many European sign languages do depend on mouthings  
to distinguish different signs so I think Stefan's development of the  
Mundbildschrift is great for that.

One caution though (as a Deaf person who has/does use lipreading) ...  
in English, it is my understanding that we only get about 30% of the  
information from lipreading. 70% comes from context and guessing.  
Examples of common misunderstandings are "maybe" vs. "baby", "olive  
juice" vs. "I love you", "fifteen" vs. "fifty", etc. It is difficult  
to catch the visual difference between them. Often the problems come  
when trying to visually distinguish voiced and unvoiced consonants  
where there could be a misunderstanding, or sounds which may not have  
a clear visual expression (an example possibly in German might be the  
'ch' sound which I understand to have 2 different pronunciations).  
Cognitively, it may be possible to process that there is a  
difference, but I myself feel uncertain that it would necessarily  
transfer to easier lipreading. I guess that's a study for someone  
interested in that topic! :) So this will certainly help to match  
sounds to the visual expression of them. I wouldn't want hearing  
people (who are not aware of these issues) to assume that this could  
enhance lipreading to the point of eliminating the need for sign  
language or an interpreter. I am sure that neither you nor Stefan  
would think that, but I am just saying this as we think of a hearing  
audience that may include people who are not aware of these things.

Thanks,

Stuart

On May 10, 2007, at 13:25, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> May 10, 2007
>
> Stefan -
> Do you have a TrueType font for Mundbildschrift?
>
> I am sure you probably thought of this long ago!!
>
> The typist could type German words, or English words, and get the  
> symbols for the Mundbildschrift instead?
>
> Does Mundbildschrift have a one-to-one correspondence with each  
> letter on the keyboard?
>
> A little like typing fingerspelling with our TrueType fonts...you  
> could type a spoken language and the fingerspelling symbols appear...
>
> Fingerspelling Fonts
> http://www.signwriting.org/catalog/sw214.html
>
>
> If you have a Mundbildschrift TrueType font, could we receive  
> permission in some way, to allow people to use it? Whatever you  
> want...
>
> I told people about Mundbildschrift yesterday at my presentation  
> and there was interest in it...
>
> I think a way to type Mundbildschrift, by typing spoken language on  
> a normal keyboard, could spread the idea that lip reading can be  
> read visually on paper now..
>
> Val ;-)
>
>
> Mundbildschrift
> http://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs2/sw0124-DE-Mundbildschrift.pdf
>