SignWriting Report: Erika Hoffman, Anthropological Linguist

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
March 12, 2010

SignWriting Report
From Val's Desk

A Visit with Dr. Erika Hoffman-Dilloway, Anthropological Linguist

Part 3: SignWriting Transcription Training (Part 4 continued next email message)

In my experience, most of the signwriters in the world are teachers or signers, but some of the researchers in my generation, who support SignWriting, do not do the writing themselves, but leave the SignWriting documents for others to transcribe...that is partly because they are older people, and SignWriting was not the norm, in their youth, so the younger people are the ones who seem to adapt to SignWriting better...

So it is inspiring to meet a young researcher, and one who also does her own transcriptions in SignWriting!

That is why I am so impressed with Erika's research...because she writes the transcriptions in SignWriting herself. For example, for her research on the standardization of Nepali Sign Language, Erika not only traveled to Nepal and worked with Deaf Nepali signers there, but Erika also transcribed videos of Deaf signers...and some of the videos are hard ones to transcribe. It is brilliant work...and the resulting research is really fascinating.

Erika chose to write her early transcripts in the Receptive mode. I too started that way when I first wrote SignWriting from videos of Danish signers in Copenhagen in 1974 and 1975. The Receptive viewpoint is based on viewing someone else signing and writing exactly what you see, without switching the writing to your own point of view...and I used to think that it made transcribing videos easier...

BUT... 

Expressive is the viewpoint Deaf signers have requested, and now that Expressive is our standard way of writing, I got used to reading and writing in the Expressive.

So it was kind of funny - I used to be skilled at reading Receptive writing, but I found myself wanting to read the transcripts in the Expressive...so Erika started writing in the Expressive now...

Erika also told me about her experiences in Nepal, about the differences in our cultures, and the beauty of the Himalayan Mountains. Erika told me a little about the Deaf Community in Nepal, and the effort to standardize their sign languages, and the different results that caused in their society.

Here are some photos of Erika during our visit. The second one below, we are standing on my balcony...


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