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From:
Michael Everson Date: Sun Feb 6, 2000 3:27 pm Subject: Re: Gallaudet University & Signwriting | |
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Ar 06:54 -0800 2000-02-06, scríobh Valerie Sutton: >Lately we have received such outstanding teacher's reports on their >successes in the classroom with SignWriting... > >It starts to make the Gallaudet sceptics look a little foolish, don't >you think?.... It does, but it follows quite naturally from the (inexplicable) attitude that "deaf languages were never meant to be written down". As if _spoken_ languages _were_ meant to be? Human beings were speaking languages for millennia before they ever write them down..... ;-) Let's imagine a household with Deaf people in it. They are literate in SignWriting and in English. One wants to leave a note for the other on the refrigerator. Will he choose to write ASL or English? Let's imagine a household with hearing people in it. They are bilingual and literate in Irish and in English. One wants to leave a note for the other on the refrigerator. Will he choose to write Irish or English? Same difference. The point is that each must have the choice. If some folks at Gallaudet don't see this, well, either they will in time, or they'll retire and be replaced by folks who do.... Michael Everson ** Everson Gunn Teoranta ** https://www.egt.ie 15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire/Ireland Vox +353 1 478 2597 ** Fax +353 1 478 2597 ** Mob +353 86 807 9169 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire |
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