SignWriting at Addis Ababa University Ethiopia

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 11, 2007

Hello Eyasu, Dr. Hirut W/Mariam, and members of the SignWriting List!

Thank you very much, Eyasu, for informing us that you received the  
SignWriting materials. In the Lessons in SignWriting CD-Rom, you will  
find several textbooks on SignWriting. You have our full permission  
to translate all documents on the CD, into the beautiful languages of  
Ethiopia.

I am also still working on adding the Ethiopian Handshapes into  
SignPuddle (the ISWA). When those new handshapes are there, you will  
be able to write Ethiopian Sign Language literature, stories, etc and  
of course dictionaries, in the movements of Ethiopian signed  
languages in SignWriting, using SignPuddle and SignBank software.

I have been working on completing the PDF documents for The Gospel  
According to John, Chapters 1-7, in American Sign Language. I hope to  
have much of it posted on the web by next week for download. Once  
that is done, then I will start working on the symbols once again, to  
complete them, and I will inform you when the Ethiopian handshapes  
will be ready for use...

Until then, you can still write Ethiopian signs in your Ethiopian  
SignPuddle Online, but you might have to "construct" some symbols  
that are missing at the moment:

Ethiopian SignPuddle
http://www.signbank.org/SignPuddle1.5/index.php?ui=1&sgn=18

Our non-profit educational organization, here in California, is not a  
university. And we do not teach Sign Language itself...only  
SignWriting. So we do not have "courses in American Sign Language"  
that we can just hand you....BUT...I do want to start encouraging  
other ASL teachers to start using SignWriting in their classrooms,  
and I do know of some who are already doing that, so I will write to  
them to ask them if they have ideas for how to introduce SignWriting  
at the same time that one teaches ASL...

If anyone here on the List, can tell us the exact schedule as to how  
you introduce SignWriting in your ASL classrooms, please post it here  
on the List, so that in Ethiopia, they can apply the same techniques  
in their classrooms teaching Ethiopian signed languages...

Many thanks!

Val ;-)

-----------------





Eyasu Tamene from Ethiopia wrote:


> Dearest Val and list members,
>
> This is to present my heartfelt thanks to Val for her unreserved  
> effort  to support our Sign Language Unit in the Department of  
> Linguistics. We have received a box of SW materials directly sent  
> from Deaf Action Committee (DAC).  Thank you Val also for your  
> willingness to further inquiry that we will make to strengthen our  
> SL unit that is going to be opened a year after from now.
>
> I hope the donation would be the base that would create affiliation  
> and bilateral relation between the two institutions. This is also  
> to announce to all that we are grateful to those who have an  
> interest to work with our university and dep't to strengthen our SL  
> unit in any way possible.
>
> I have copied this message to Dr. Hirut W/Mariam, Chairperson of  
> the Dep't of Linguistics. She will have her own message to you later.
>
> Best Regards,
> Eyasu
>



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