Genesis of SignWriting

Wed Nov 6 19:21:11 UTC 2013

Ha! Love it, Stefan!

On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 2:17 PM, Valerie Sutton <signwriting at mac.com> wrote:

> SignWriting List
> November 6, 2013
>
> Ha! This is gorgeous and also with whimsy, Stefan…Thank you for
> this….There is a DanceWriting figure taking a bow on one knee on the bottom
> of the dress of the figure on the left - very cute!
>
>
> Did you know, when the SignWriting Script was categorized as one of the
> world’s scripts by the International Bureau of Standardization (ISO) in
> 2006 ( http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/iso15924-codes.html ), the
> discussion was at the time that we were similar to Hieroglyphics… I
> questioned that but then there was not a good way to categorize SignWriting
> but as a “Featural Alphabet” like Korean Hangul ;-)
>
> Val ;-)
>
> ———
>
>
> On Nov 6, 2013, at 10:56 AM, Honza <honza at ruce.cz> wrote:
>
> Nice work Stefan :)
>
> Honza
>
>
> On 6 November 2013 18:38, Stefan Woehrmann <
> stefanwoehrmann at gebaerdenschrift.de> wrote:
>
>>  Hi Honza, Valerie and everybody...
>>
>> when I did this kind of research a decade ago I found some very
>> interesting documents that may lead to the assumption that SignWriting is a
>> notation system that existed already long time ago...   smile
>>
>> L.I.F.E
>>
>>
>>
>> All best
>>
>>
>>
>> Stefan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>> *Von:* SignWriting List: Read and Write Sign Languages [mailto:
>> SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU] *Im Auftrag von *Valerie Sutton
>> *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 6. November 2013 17:54
>> *An:* SW-L at LISTSERV.VALENCIACOLLEGE.EDU
>> *Betreff:* Re: Genesis of SignWriting
>>
>>
>>
>> SignWriting List
>>
>> November 6, 2013
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello Honza and everyone -
>>
>> Thank you for starting this interesting thread, about the “genesis” or
>> the background and history not only to SignWriting, but to writing sign
>> languages throughout history. There is a lot to discuss.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regarding Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian…
>>
>> I first heard about Bébian’s system in September 2007, when my friend
>> Shane Gilchrist (hi Shane!) suggested that I purchase a book called “I See
>> a Voice” by Jonathan Rée. I ordered it from Amazon.com<http://amazon.com/>and then enjoyed skimming the chapters related to writing sign languages,
>> from page 293-324. It was there that I first learned about Bébian, but I
>> was immediately attracted to his system and his feelings about writing sign
>> languages and felt a “connection” (you know what I mean - almost a
>> spiritual feeling that we were on the same plane, so to speak). And there
>> are many other interesting stories and information in the book which makes
>> me think I should read the book more carefully - I confess I have only
>> skimmed the book.
>>
>>
>>
>> But yes, Honza, I see the connection, but no, I did not know about Bébian
>> at the time of my first writing Danish Sign Language and a South Pacific
>> Sign Language back in Denmark in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
>>
>>
>>
>> I was a little different than the other developers of writing systems, in
>> that I did not come from a knowledge of any sign language, nor did I have a
>> desire to learn linguistics. I loved languages in general, but that is not
>> a linguistic interest. I was already writing the dances of the Bournonville
>> tradition at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen with my invention in 1974, and
>> when I started writing the movement of both hearing people and Danish Sign
>> Language from a video at the University of Copenhagen starting in 1974, I
>> was sharing my time between writing dance at the Royal theater and writing
>> sign language movement and hearing-person’s gestures at the University - I
>> saw myself as a movement notator and not a sign language writer at the
>> time…but overtime, as I wrote more of Danish Sign Language on the video, I
>> became aware it was a real language…I self-published two booklets on
>> writing sign languages - one on writing Danish Sign Language, and the other
>> on writing signs from a South Pacific Island with Rolf Kuschel. These two
>> booklets are mentioned on this web page, and I could scan them and post
>> them on the web if you wish…would you like to see these old historic
>> documents?
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.signwriting.org/library/history/hist003.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> My influence was definitely Friedrich Albert Zorn (
>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Albert_Zorn ), and Walt Disney’s
>> animation that places movement in drawings frame by frame by frame from
>> left to right on a five-lined staff that can fit under music… That was my
>> starting point…
>>
>>
>>
>> Then I started writing sign language in stick figures at the University
>> go Copenhagen… Later I learned about Dr.Stokoe and his research…
>>
>>
>>
>> I think starting visual with stick figures, with no linguistic
>> judgements, had great value, and I still believe in the visual, but it is
>> the writers we work with, like yourself, Honza, and in my case, the Deaf
>> Action Committee, that had the greatest influence on our writing
>> expressively, in vertical columns, without full stick figures…the way we
>> write today…and the internet had a big influence…where I and others meet
>> people like yourself - as we write we influence each other...
>>
>>
>>
>> I bet there were many other writing systems for sign languages before and
>> after Bébian, that we have not heard of, because everyone needs a way to
>> write signs… Adam tells me that most signers have developed their own way
>> of writing their language from time to time…Adam developed his own system
>> too, before starting to work with SignWriting, and I have also met other
>> Deaf signers who have done the same - Bernard Bragg is one -
>>
>>
>>
>> If Bébian had done his work during the age of the internet, we might be
>> writing his system worldwide now - smile -
>>
>>
>>
>> Val ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 6, 2013, at 7:18 AM, Honza <honza at RUCE.CZ> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>  Hello Valerie,
>>
>>
>>
>> recently I researched history if writing sign languages and I realized
>> that the very first writing system developed by Roch-Ambroise Auguste
>> Bébian (French) is in some way similar to SignWriting.
>>
>> Did you know about Bebian's writing system by the time you developed
>> SignWriting on the basis of DanceWriting and were you inspired by his
>> system or not?
>> It is known that Stokoe created his notation system on the basis of
>> Bebian's..
>>
>> It is very interesting fact.
>>
>>
>>
>> It interests me because I teach about writing sign languages at
>> University, but I haven't found enought detail about this.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Honza
>>
>>
>>   ________________________________________________
>>
>> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>>
>> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>>
>> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>>
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>>
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>> http://listserv.valenciacollege.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=SW-L&A=1________________________________________________
>>
>> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>>
>> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>>
>> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>>
>> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
>> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>>
>> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> ________________________________________________
>
> SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
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>
>
> ________________________________________________
>
>  SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION
>
> Valerie Sutton SignWriting List moderator sutton at signwriting.org
>
> Post Messages to the SignWriting List: sw-l at listserv.valenciacollege.edu
>
> SignWriting List Archives & Home Page
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist
>
> Join, Leave or Change How You Receive SW List Messages
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>

-- 
Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Oberlin College

________________________________________________

SIGNWRITING LIST INFORMATION

Valerie Sutton
SignWriting List moderator
sutton at signwriting.org

Post Messages to the SignWriting List:
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