An alphabet for a specific sign language from the ISWA 2010

Mon Jul 30 03:53:03 UTC 2012

I completely agree with you on a smaller symbol set. I thought we were done with the work in Brazil, but Fernando Capovilla has been able to greatly expand and focus the work so that Brazil may be able to have a defined symbol set soon. 

Charles Butler
chazzer3332000 at yahoo.com
240-764-5748
Clear writing moves business forward.

________________________________
 From: MARIA GALEA <maria.azzopardi at UM.EDU.MT>
To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU 
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: An alphabet for a specific sign language from the ISWA 2010

Thank you Adam for your feedback. Your comment on the benefit of having a
smaller symbol-set (an alphabet) for specific languages is very much
appreciated, and I will include your comment and refer to you (if you give
me permission).

Any feedback is appreciated at this stage, because so little has been
written about the subject of specific alphabets. Additionally being who
you are, a Deaf person/ASL user and surely one of the most highly skilled
SignWriters - your comment is invaluable! Thank you!
maria

> As far as I know, there hasn't been much, if any, on the type of work you
> are asking about. I think it is because there are still so many things
> that haven't been written in every sign language that it is still hard to
> say that these symbols will never be used in a given sign language.
> However, the information that you have found means that you can focus on
> teaching people those symbols first rather than going through all in
> order. Hopefully we will get to that point with more sign languages.
>
> Adam
>
> On Jul 29, 2012, at 2:10 PM, "MARIA GALEA" <maria.azzopardi at UM.EDU.MT>
> wrote:
>
>> Once again thank you Charles and Val for your feedback!
>>
>> I understand that the symbol frequency is a good way to find out symbols
>> used to write a specific language - and it can be done - it's a
>> wonderful
>> tool in Puddle (thank you Steve!) and I have used it very recently to
>> analyze the Maltese Sign Language alphabet. However it's not the
>> intention
>> of the work to figure out other languages alphabets etc. What I need to
>> know is whether this work has been carried out by other researchers or
>> teachers.
>>
>> I am fully aware (as i have taught SignWriting this way in the past
>> also)
>> that the ISWA 2010 can be used as it is to write any sign language - and
>> so it's natural that the process of identifying the alphabet of a
>> language
>> may be bypassed. That is, you can still teach the writing of a specific
>> language WITHOUT having yet discovered the alphabet, because ALL symbols
>> of any alphabet are there and ready in the ISWA 2010.
>>
>> However just to summarize one small finding from my work - for Maltese
>> Sign Language, 268 base symbols are used from the ISWA's 652. On further
>> analysis the number may be reduced to 248 symbol.
>>
>> So Maltese Sign Language has an alphabet of 248 symbols - now once this
>> work is completed - future manuals for the writing of Maltese sign
>> language need not cover the 403 base symbols that are NOT used, are NOT
>> part of this specific language. See the point I'm after? There may be
>> benefits from having the alphabet set.
>>
>> This is one very thin slice of the work, there is a long way to go...
>>
>> maria
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> SignWriting List
>>> July 28, 2012
>>>
>>> Hi Maria and Charles -
>>>
>>> Yes, Charles is correct. Using the Symbol Frequency feature in
>>> SignPuddle
>>> Online is an excellent way to find all of the symbols used to write the
>>> signs in that specific database. For example, imagine you are searching
>>> for all of the handshapes used in American Sign Language.
>>>
>>> 1. Go to the ASL SignPuddle dictionary:
>>>
>>> ASL SignPuddle Dictionary
>>> http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/index.php?ui=1&sgn=4
>>>
>>> 2. Click on Symbol Frequency.
>>> 3. Click on the Hands category.
>>> 4. Click on the SymbolGroup you want.
>>> 5. Notice in that group, which symbols have numbers under them, and
>>> which
>>> ones are grey?
>>> 6. The grey symbols are symbols not used in writing ASL signs in the
>>> ASL
>>> dictionary puddle.
>>> 7. The numbers under the symbols shows how many times that symbol was
>>> used
>>> to write signs in this database�
>>>
>>> See attached -
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -------
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 27, 2012, at 10:38 PM, Charles Butler wrote:
>>>
>>>> The fastest way to do that is to look at "symbol frequency" in any of
>>>> the SignPuddles. This would give you the current research on the
>>>> minimal
>>>> pairs of a language. For example, one of the earlier publications of
>>>> LIBRAS had determined a certain number of handshapes (around 96), then
>>>> people began putting in the variants from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
>>>> and
>>>> Rio Grande de Sul and the number expanded. Each day we've gotten a few
>>>> more handshapes. When I was there in 2000, there were two handshapes,
>>>> for example, using the ring finger and the thumb in contact, "droga"
>>>> and
>>>> "noiva", which depend on where the thumb is placed.
>>>>
>>>> Charles Butler
>>>> chazzer3332000 at yahoo.com
>>>> 240-764-5748
>>>> Clear writing moves business forward.
>>>> From: MARIA GALEA <maria.azzopardi at UM.EDU.MT>
>>>> To: SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
>>>> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 11:34 PM
>>>> Subject: An alphabet for a specific sign language from the ISWA 2010
>>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> Me again with one more question..
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone out there studied the alphabet of his/her sign language-
>>>> that
>>>> is  has anyone derived a smaller amount of symbols from the ISWA 2010,
>>>> as
>>>> the significant symbols (an alphabet) for writing a specific language
>>>> e.g.
>>>> ASL, BSL, Norwegian Sign Language, German sign language etc?
>>>>
>>>> If you know of any such work could you direct me to it please.
>>>>
>>>> If you have carried it out would love to include and refer to your
>>>> work
>>>> in
>>>> my dissertation.
>>>>
>>>> Once again I truly appreciate ANY feedback whatsoever,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> Maria
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> -----
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Val ;-)
>>>
>>> Valerie Sutton
>>> SignWriting List moderator
>>> sutton at signwriting.org
>>>
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>>
>
>
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