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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Wed Jan 26, 2000 3:02 pm Subject: Re: Is SignWriting like Chinese? | ||||||||
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>Now, back to what they meant to say, not what they said. Is SW like >Chinese characters? Valerie, your answer is essentially accurate. >Mandarin, unlike most writing systems, is "logographic", i.e. what is >written is not sounds (phonemes) but ideas, concepts, meanings. True, there >is a phonetic component to many Chinese characters, but it is not a phonetic >writing system, like SW is. > I guess the short answer is: "No, SW is not like Chinese characters." >It's probably more accurate to say: "SW is like written Spanish" (which is >the most phonetic language I can think of off hand -- mmmmm, maybe I should >have chosen Swahili!). > OK, that's my three yuan's worth. > - Wayne Smith --------------------------------------- SignWriting List January 26, 2000 Thank you for this clarification, Wayne. I really appreciate it. I am happy you responded because I know you know better than most how to explain this to people. Normally I don't worry about comparisons to SignWriting, but in this case this was a reporter who asked me if SignWriting was like Chinese....so when it comes to explaining these differences to the press, I wanted to know what I am talking about. Kind of funny, isn't it? I never had any interest in other writing systems, but since SignWriting is continually being compared to other systems, I have no choice but to learn a little bit about them too. Just so you all know, SignWriting has nothing to do with other writing systems - It just is as it is. I became inspired and it came naturally from there, and it is not based on work that was done before. The only true influence I had was from the dance notation system invented by Friedrich Albert Zorn. I will be placing some of his writing on the web later..it is a bunch of adorable stick figures running around on a five-lined music staff. Once I saw Zorn's writing at around age 15, I became totally caught up with the idea and spent hours and hours writing dance steps with stick figures...and slowly the writing system started that way, and then took years to evolve to where it is today. A 25 year process so far...not based on any spoken language writing system ;-) So I have saved your response, Wayne, and next time I speak with the reporter I will refer to it, if I need to... Many thanks once again - Val ;-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||||||||
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