Capitalized D to show cultural connotations (Deaf person, Deaf community) an International convention?

Ingvild Roald iroald at HOTMAIL.COM
Thu Oct 6 16:14:48 UTC 2011


In Norwegian, we do not capitalize natons etc., only proper names are capitalize ('Norge' for 'Norway' but 'norsk' for 'Norwegian'). Nevertheless, I have seen an occational 'Døv' for 'Deaf', but more often 'kulturelt døv' or 'tegnspråklig døv' (culturally or signing deafs). Sorry, I do not have refernces for you, but capatalizing is definitely not the norm in Norwegian. 

Ingvild 


Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2011 11:57:57 -0400
From: lmcmultrakraft at GMAIL.COM
Subject: Capitalized D to show cultural connotations (Deaf person, Deaf community) an International convention?
To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU

Good day everyone,
 
I'm tracking the convention of using a lowercase "d" in deaf to indicate the physical condition of being deaf and capitalized "D" in Deaf to indicate the cultural connotation.  We can see this used in all English publications on signed languages and/or the Deaf community.  My research shows this convention first showed up in James C. Woodward's 'Some observations on sociolinguistic variation and American Sign Language'  in the Kansas Journal of Sociology, Fall 1973.  Reviewing articles and other literature in English, from researchers around the world, I can see this convention used.  I'm curious about writings in languages other than English.  

 
My question for you all: in languages other than English, in articles and writings, do the scholarly and Deaf communities follow similar capitalization rules to indicate a difference between culturally Deaf and physically deaf?   Any idea on when this started in your country?  With which article/author?  

 
many thanks!
 
Christine Multra Kraft
Ball State University
Indiana, USA 		 	   		  
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