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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Fri Mar 3, 2000 6:24 pm Subject: Signing in Black Deaf Communities | |
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On 3/2/00, INGRID FOGGITT wrote: >The E-Directory is amazing and extremely helpful! Many thanks. I >am amazing at the similarities between white SA signs and ASL -- >remember the black Deaf communties use completely different signs -- >a result of South Africa's past and a very evident reality. We have >at least 11 different Sign Languages here! ------------------------------ SignWriting List March 3, 2000 Ingrid - Your messages are a joy and I will be responding to your other message shortly...but in regards to your point above...actually we have different dialects of American Sign Language too and I am told that in the southern part of the USA, there are different dialects of signing in the African-American communities... The fact that "white" signing is different than "black" signing I guess does make sense, since people tend to huddle together in groups! One of my Deaf co-workers, who is native to ASL and white...showed me some of the signs that she had learned from the South and I must say - they are wonderful energetic signs and very very different - like the signs for FIREMAN and BIRTHDAY are completely different...I would love to record some of those dialects in SignWriting... And you can record all 11 different South African signed languages too! I am sure others on our SW List will have information for us, about the different dialects in different communities. I understand from Hope Hurlbut, who is using SignWriting to record several signed languages in Malaysia...that some areas in Malaysia use a form of ASL because of influence from Gallaudet University...but others have totally different signed languages. So it may be that the white people in South Africa have visited Gallaudet? Just a thought... I have been watching the incredible rescues during the floods in Mozambique on TV...and I thought of you...I am aware that is North of you, but I hope your area is not effected?..... Please tell your students they are in our thoughts! Val ;-) ------------------------------------ Valerie Sutton SignWritingSite https://www.SignWriting.org SignWriting List Archive https://www.egroups.com/group/sw-l/ Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA |
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