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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Mon Jan 24, 2000 10:00 pm Subject: Is SignWriting like Chinese? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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January 24 Dear SW List: People oftentimes compare SignWriting to Chinese. I know very little about Chinese myself...I only know SignWriting ;-) I have tried to write something below to answer the question, which I received three times last week and one time today. I would like to post an answer on our web site so I can refer people in the future... I know there are some linguists on the SignWriting List....perhaps you could give me feedback? Is what I say about Chinese correct below? Thanks for your help! Val ;-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUESTION: Is SignWriting like Chinese? ANSWER: No. Although SignWriting symbols are visual, and sometimes we write signs down the page in vertical columns, from a linguistic standpoint, SignWriting is different than Chinese. SignWriting is "phonetic/phonemic". In simplistic terms, Chinese generally writes concepts and some sounds. Mandarin Chinese is ONE writing system for several different languages and dialects in China (I believe). But SignWriting does not write concepts. It writes body parts. It records any human movement, and can be applied to any "movement-based language". We write what happens, not what it means. But there is a meaning attached to what happens, and if a Deaf person already knows their Sign Language, then they know what it means! For example, in English, we can read "a" or "b" or "c", but that doesn't mean we automatically understand German or French, even though people who speak German or French use those symbols too ;-) In American Sign Language, the sign "to cook" is the same movement as the sign "to translate a language" in Danish Sign Language...two totally different meanings for the same sign. In SignWriting we write exactly how the body looks when you sign that sign, but the meaning changes depending on whether a Dane or an American is reading it! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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