[Sw-l] I am thirsty for information about SignFont

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
November 8, 2024

Hello Kalasuno Lili:
Have you tried this web page?:

Symbol Font for ASL:
https://aslfont.github.io/Symbol-Font-For-ASL/ways-to-write.html

Don Newkirk’s original writing system for ASL used a standard English keyboard and strings of alphabetic characters from spoken languages were used to represent ASL signs, and other characteristics. Then later, Don Newkirk worked with the SignFont system, which is a different system.

I know this because I met Don at Salk Institute, at Bellugi’s lab, back in 1975. I came to show Ursula and Ed Klima my SignWriting system, and Don showed me how he had developed a way to use the normal English typewriter to write signs…so that was a great memory! Hello Don, if you are reading this. How are you? Feel free to write here to tell us about your work...

So Don Newkirk’s name is associated with two different ASL writing systems… one called SignFont… the other one, with the alphabetic characters, I do not remember the name of… please forgive!

SignWriting is a very actively used writing system 50 years later, but several of the other systems listed on the above page are not used any longer -

Thank you for your question!

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Val ;-)

Valerie Sutton
sutton at signwriting.org
SignWriting.org

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> On Nov 8, 2024, at 5:21 AM, Kalasuno Lili <ni.wa.torigairu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello, 
> I am researching various writing systems (including obsolete ones) and their representation on the computer, and now trying to find information about Don E. Newkirk's SignFont notation.
> I am disappointed to find that there is no hope of obtaining his book, and that online resources that have survived are missing essentials such as images and fonts.
> https://web.archive.org/web/20011006050916/http://members.home.net/dnewkirk/signfont/
> 
> Then I found these messages exchanged 12 years ago:
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/2012-March/056985.html
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/2012-March/056993.html
> 
> Does anyone still have the font files, etc. that were exchanged here?
> Or even just a fragment of images, I would like to have the information on what system it had.
> Thank you.
> 
> 
> ----------
> Kalasuno Lili
> <ni.wa.torigairu at gmail.com>
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