Mundbildschrift and Mundbild ;-)

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 13, 2007

Hi Stuart!
Woehrmann's SpeechWriting System has been used to write the details  
of German speech, (both the seen and unseen parts of speech), and has  
been taught to Deaf students in Stefan's class for several  
years...maybe 5 years? Is that right Stefan?

Stefan's students are also signing in class...so his classroom is not  
oral like the others in his school...

I do not know if other spoken languages have tried SpeechWriting  
yet...So far it seems to work well for German! ;-)

I saw a German TV program...a full half hour show...where German TV  
crews came in and taped Deaf kids reading the SpeechWriting System in  
their class, and it was very impressive.

First, the kids in Stefan's class seemed to be signers. Sign Language  
was prominent in their classroom.

Second, they used SignWriting for reading signs...Using SignWriter  
DOS! (this was before SignPuddle ;-) Stefan typed with SignWriter DOS  
in front of the cameras - it was great!

And then they used the SpeechWriting system for reading some spoken  
German documents that Stefan had prepared for them in  
SpeechWriting...as an observer, I got the feeling they really  
sincerely enjoyed learning it...

...Stefan was kind enough to send me a CD of that TV program and I  
hope someday to telephone the TV station to get permission to show it  
to others...

Anyway, SpeechWriting is not a part of SignWriting...it is another  
subject.

Of course SignWriting records the movement of the mouth...but is not  
the same as SpeechWriting..

And this list is about SignWriting ;-)

I will leave the details of the IPA to others...

But at least you now know that SignWriting mouth movement writing is  
not the same as SpeechWriting, which has a different purpose...

Val ;-)

--





On May 13, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Stuart Thiessen wrote:

> Just to clarify ...
>
> Is this SpeechWriting system really writing the phonetics like the  
> IPA or is it writing the phonemics (what is perceived to be the  
> sounds of a given language)? The IPA does cover a very large  
> territory of sounds, so unless you have a one-to-one mapping of the  
> SpeechWriting system to the IPA, it may not be best to advertise it  
> as an equivalent of the IPA until that time. There are some sounds  
> in the IPA that are not visible on the mouth or the face. For  
> example, some African languages have clicks and other such sounds.  
> Other languages have tones which alter the meaning of a word even  
> though the mouth movements are exactly the same. So those elements  
> will need to be considered before it can be accurately called the  
> equivalent of the IPA.
>
> Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but I tend to prefer precise  
> language when it comes to things like this. I am not opposed to  
> this, but as a Deaf person, I feel our first focus is enabling the  
> Deaf person to read/write in their sign language. Using that, we  
> can build bridges to reading and writing the spoken language.  
> Whether or not this SpeechWriting will enable building a bridge to  
> spoken language literacy or not would be an interesting study.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Stuart
>
> On May 13, 2007, at 9:16, Valerie Sutton wrote:
>
>> SignWriting List
>> May 13, 2007
>>
>> Adam Frost wrote:
>>> Ok. That helps me understand what Mundbildschrift is. I could  
>>> possibly be called Speech Writing. :-) So what I was thinking is  
>>> called Mundbild, or maybe called in English Mouth Writing or Lip  
>>> Writing. Your explanation helps a lot. Thanks. :-)
>>
>> Hello Stefan, Adam, Sandy, Charles and everyone!
>>
>> You are correct, Adam, that you are interested in writing what  
>> Stefan calls Mundbild...which are SignWriting symbols applied to  
>> writing the movements we see on the mouth while signing...and  
>> writing Mundbild should be a part of the ISWA (the International  
>> SignWriting Alphabet). I think your name LipWriting is fun! Or  
>> Mouthing Writing...or just plain SignWriting Facial Expressions  
>> might be fine too ;-)
>>
>> and you are right again, that Mundbildschrift is not the  
>> same...and will not be a part of the ISWA.
>>
>> I asked Stefan to choose an English translation of the term  
>> "Mundbildschrift" for us, so we can understand it in English...and  
>> Stefan chose this translation:
>>
>> Mundbildschrift (Woehrmann's SpeechWriting System)
>>
>> Woehrmann's SpeechWriting System writes the sounds of the IPA  
>> (International Phonetic Alphabet) using some symbols from  
>> SignWriting Facial Expressions, but then developing those symbols  
>> further, to create a standard way of writing the sounds of the IPA.
>>
>> Here is an example...see attached...this is a sentence written in  
>> Woehrmann's SpeechWriting System. This sentence writes the sounds  
>> of the English sentence at the bottom of the diagram. You can see  
>> there are seven words, read from left to right. If a person  
>> memorizes what sound is represented by each standardized facial  
>> expression, they can produce the sounds of of the IPA:
>>
>>
>>
>> <Woehrmann's SpeechWriting.gif>
>
>