[Sw-l] General VS Native ASL fingerspelling: S-O-U-T-H D-A-K-O-T-A

[Adam Frost]

Yes, there are a lot of allophones in fingerspelling. Allophones are any phonemes or smallest meaningless units of language that are perceived to mean the same thing but follow a specific rule to when they are used. In this case, there are several handshapes that mean the same letter in fingerspelling. 

One of my old linguist professors explained it as Superman always appears when there is trouble, while Clark Kent appears when there is news. They never appear in the other’s situation because they are actually the same person.

Most languages can find the use of allophones, but language learners are usually only taught the “correct” form even if it should actually be an allophone that is used.

I once taught a fingerspelling course and showed students how there are about 150 different handshapes for the 26 letters of the English alphabet! Some letters had as many as 10 different allophones!

Byron Bridges made a good example of this with the fingerspelling of South Dakota in the video you shared.

I think this issue of allophones is one of the reasons why it can be difficult to decide how to write something in a specific language (in ASL for example) because native users don’t see allophones as being different while language learners don’t realize the different phonemes are considered allophones and therefore the same thing.

And to make it even more complex, there are times when the same phoneme is considered to be associated with a different allophone in different cases. That would be similar to how Bruce Wayne is Batman and Dick Grayson is Robin, who is also Batman when Bruce Wayne isn’t around. (No wonder why identity crisis is a thing!)

(This was intended to be a short email, but it has started run away with me. I guess you can’t tell I enjoy linguistics. Ha!)


Adam

> On Feb 14, 2022, at 2:45 PM, Sutthikhun Phaengphongsai <suttikunep at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Hi all! I just released a new video about native ASL fingerspelling in SW.
> 
> As a non-native signer, I'm surprised as to how all native signers are able to fingerspell so fast! I think the explanation in the original video gave me the answer. That's interesting to me! 🏃👋
> 
> Youtube: https://youtu.be/yiFwdvWHFhk <https://youtu.be/yiFwdvWHFhk>
> Original video: https://youtu.be/WrerwSBXKCA <https://youtu.be/WrerwSBXKCA>
> 
> Sutthikhun
> <sign (14).png>
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