finger direction matters

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
July 5, 2010

> On Jul 5, 2010, at 2:19 AM, Ingvild Roald wrote:
> In the MOVEMENT sign, both hands are turned the same way. Is that correct? Do the hands turn a little sideways when they move? Or should they both be pointed towards center and just move sideways? If you do not know the actual sign language, you do not know how to read this (but then, this will be the case when signwriting is more used and standards for each sign language are stabilising themselves ... the rules will differ somewhat according to the sign languages).
>> Ingvild 

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Hello Ingvild and everyone!
Thank you for this message. I agree that writing standards will probably be different in different sign languages too, and that is only normal...when we think about the Roman alphabet that is used to write western spoken languages, like Norwegian and English and German, for example, and yet there are several symbols that you use in Norway that are not understood in English, such as the å, ø and æ, and of course in German ü and so forth. And I am sure spelling rules are different too, in each spoken language...

So we are all writing the best we can, for our culture and circumstances. I know you participated in a few of our DAC meetings at my home in La Jolla years ago, didn't you, Ingvild? I remember several of our DAC members chatting with you about linguistics and so many other things - those weekly meetings that we had with the DAC, from 1988 - 1996, and then another generation of the DAC worked with me from 1996 - 1999 - there were around 15 Deaf people in all, that i worked with me, in those 2 time periods - it is their way of writing, and now working with Adam, that has influenced the way we write here in our organization...

But of course in Norway, you have totally different influences, different languages, different cultures - so you must carve your own path with writing your languages -

You asked about the ASL sign for MOVEMENT. I am not a skilled ASL signer (I have a hearing accent ;-), but here is how i do that sign. I am attaching a little .mov video clip - can you view it? if not tell me and I can post another format... and I am also attaching a jpg photo of one position...


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On Jul 5, 2010, at 2:19 AM, Ingvild Roald wrote:

> In the MOVEMENT sign, both hands are turned the same way. Is that correct? Do the hands turn a little sideways when they move? Or should they both be pointed towards center and just move sideways? If you do not know the actual sign language, you do not know how to read this (but then, this will be the case when signwriting is more used and standards for each sign language are stabilising themselves ... the rules will differ somewhat according to the sign languages).
> 
> Ingvild 
> 
> 
> 
> > Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 21:21:41 -0700
> > From: sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG
> > Subject: finger direction matters
> > To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACC.EDU
> > 
> > SignWriting List
> > July 1st, 2010
> > 
> > I would also like to point out that if one looks at documents written around the world, that writers tend to follow the direction of the fingers. Here is an example. I have seen this handshape written both ways, and I feel both are readable, because when the handshape is parallel to the floor, there is the small space or break at the fingers to tell us that, and the black back of the hand tells us that we are viewing the back of the hand parallel to the floor. So either handshape in the attached diagram can be read. But the writing of the fingers directed down seems logical and the most visual for me...and I tend to write it that way. Like in the sign for MOVEMENT attached. Finger direction is important for reading signs quickly because meaning is held in the finger direction...so writing it as close to the way it looks in real life is important:
> >