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From:  Valerie Sutton
Date:  Tue Nov 9, 1999  3:52 pm
Subject:  Re: Writing Spatial Relationships


>A rather large group of Norwegian signers wanted the
>shoulders or the face to present in alomost all signs, and they also
>wanted the 'simultanous' symbol not to be written unless that could
>lead to a misunderstanding. Also, if the two hands move together as a
>classifier, we will use only one movement arrow with the open
>arrowhead, regardless of whether these two hands 'paint the same path'.
>Ingvild

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Everyone -
I am supposed to be doing other work - ha! But Ingvild's message was so
interesting I can't stop thinking about it (smile)...

It is nice to know that a large group of Norwegian signers wanted the
"Full-Body SignWriting"..... That is a stick figure drawing, with shoulders
and arms...

Full-Body SignWriting
(in the middle of this web page)
https://www.SignWriting.org/hist008.html

Are people still using the Full-Body SW in Norway? That is how we started
in Denmark, and they are still using it as far as I know....

Discussions about the Simultaneous Line, and writing one arrow instead of
two when the movements are on parallel paths, have come up quite a bit in
the past...

As you know, the Danes opted for both those changes...

I suspect the point about the Simultaneous Line is a valid one...only
writing it when it can be confused with something else is a good
solution..it is a little like the Danes only wanting to write Touch when it
is absolutely necessary...

What matters is what can be read properly...and writing systems
historically have to go through this simplification process to get
something that is easy to use on a daily basis....and of course it is
confusing for the first generation of writers...

By the way, writing spatial relationships has nothing to do with the
changes discussed in this message....the spatial relationship between body
parts and movement symbols is not language per se...it is Movement Writing
based on planes, which gives ease in reading, but is not language itself....

Val ;-)

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