Handwriting: Val's Shorthand Suggestions

Tue Dec 23 03:31:58 UTC 2008

Hi Andre - and everyone -

Well, maybe in time, with the right instruction materials, the  
Shorthand will not have to be only for professional jobs but could be  
changed or adjusted to be usable on a daily basis by children who are  
at an advanced writing level...I think the idea of using it for  
professional court stenography may be more unrealistic....I think it  
may be better as a daily handwriting for advanced writers, and if you  
have a curriculum for children learning at different levels, then the  
more advanced children might enjoy the Shorthand...so I wouldn't  
assume that kids can't learn it too...

Val ;-)

On Dec 22, 2008, at 6:58 PM, Gagnon et Thibeault wrote:

> Hi Sandy and everyone,
>
>   Sandy, thank you for sharing a SW shorthand with us.  This  
> shorthand is good for College or University level for professional  
> works and some people who are hobbies to write it.  I encourage you  
> to develop a SW shorthand instruction with Val and Adam.  I am sure  
> that some people will enjoy learning it by email.   It is nice that  
> there are two types of writing by hand :  a handwriting instruction  
> for children and adults too , and a shorthand instruction for  
> adults.and professional works.
>
>   I enjoy reading your elephant story.
>
>   Hand waving
>
>   André
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandy Fleming" <sandy at scotstext.org 
> >
> To: "SignWriting List" <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 2:56 PM
> Subject: [sw-l] Handwriting: Val's Shorthand Suggestions
>
>
>> Hi Val!
>>
>>> Following that idea that the fingers are more important than the  
>>> base,
>>> then the flat hand with five fingers would just be five spokes for
>>> five fingers and the base shape would not be written...essentially,
>>> the Shorthand would become the cursive form of sw handwriting
>>> maybe...this was an idea proposed by Dr. Karen van Hoek, who used  
>>> the
>>> Shorthand as her SW Handwriting system and loved it...
>>
>> I've tried writing with these "shorthand" suggestions and I too, love
>> it! This seems to bring the feel of SignWriting much closer to the  
>> feel
>> of writing rather than drawing to me. The signs are written more  
>> simply
>> so that once I've written one a few times it becomes much easier to
>> write it again without having to think about how it's made.
>>
>> I've attached an attempt at writing a brief anecdote that runs in my
>> family. Since it's not "phonetic" as SignWriting usually is and  
>> it's in
>> BSL, you may have some difficulty with it, so I'll go through it  
>> here.
>>
>> The larger sign on the left says "elephant", which is my title for  
>> the
>> story.
>>
>> Sign-for-sign, it then goes like this:
>>
>> aLongTimeAgo Scotland h-a-w-i-c-k | cousin me | andUncle me | street
>> justWalkingAlong || circus carnivalComingTowardsThem
>> bothWatchingItGoingBy finish || uncle askChild elephant didYouSee? ||
>> cousinLooksUpAtHim elephant what? ||
>>
>> Or in English:
>>
>> A long time ago in Hawick in Scotland my cousin and uncle were  
>> walking
>> along the street when a circus carnival came by. They watched it  
>> passing
>> and when it was gone my uncle asked my cousin, "Did you see the
>> elephant?" He said, "What elephant?"
>>
>> Some notes on the writing:
>>
>> elephant: the handshape here is a full "C" without the palm drawn. I
>> hope this is clear enough for someone who's used to it.
>>
>> h-a-w-i-c-k: When signing with someone at a bar I noticed how she was
>> holding her drink in one hand and doing two-handed fingerspelling  
>> with
>> her free hand only. It occurred to me that you often see this and it
>> might be a good way of writing two-handed fingerspelling in a simpler
>> way that still makes sense to native BSLers. Combining this with  
>> Val's
>> suggestion of not writing the palms, this is the result. I've  
>> sometimes
>> written both hands when that emphasises the connection with the Latin
>> letter, as for "K" in this word.
>>
>> andUncle: the single head nod which sometimes means "and" I've  
>> written
>> without the arrowhead. I've been doing this for a long time for head
>> nods and shakes.
>>
>> street: I perhaps wrote this sign too quickly as it's a bit out of
>> shape! it's two "American-H" hands written with the palms because the
>> orientation is unusual so I felt it had to be indicated.
>>
>> justWalkingAlong: I've missed out the arrowheads again, this time for
>> the "relaxed pout" on the mouth indicating that the walk is "as  
>> normal".
>> The half-arrowhead is horizontal, but if I'd been more careful it  
>> would
>> have been diagonal!
>>
>> circus: I hope this is clear, it's supposed to be twisting three  
>> curved
>> fingers (thumb, index and middle) about the nose like a clown nose.
>>
>> carnivalComingTowardsUs: again, I wrote the palms because I felt the
>> orientation was unusual.
>>
>> bothWatchingItGoingBy: for a while now I've just repeated  
>> arrowheads to
>> indicate repeated movements, so this arrow is swept through three  
>> times,
>> in BSL indicating an activity that went on for some time.
>>
>> finish: the two little lines are thumbs; the arrows are supposed to  
>> be
>> moving upwards but I didn't draw them doubled; I didn't worry so much
>> about clarity because this sign is used very frequently and  
>> couldn't be
>> mistaken for anything else.
>>
>> what: again, I've missed the arrowheads as this shaking from side to
>> side movement should be clear enough to BSLers.
>>
>> Will everybody be able to see this? What's best to submit graphics  
>> in,
>> PNG, GIF or JPEG?
>>
>> Sandy Fleming
>>
>>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
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