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From:  Valerie Sutton
Date:  Sat Nov 24, 2001  8:04 pm
Subject:  Re: How much SW detail to write? or...Standardized SW Spellings


SignWriting List
November 24, 2001

SW List members:
Regarding Antonio Carlos' comments below....

Back when written English began, monks wrote Bibles in old English in
solitude. Very few read their texts...It wasn't until centuries
later, that the everyday citizen went to school and learned how to
read and write...so they had centuries to standardize spellings and
develop a way to teach reading and writing, which we now take for
granted in school.

SignWriting is only 27 years old... That is a baby of a writing
system...Right now, beginning Sign-readers are reading texts written
by beginning Sign-writers....Naturally they hesitate...not only to
read the signs, but to write them too...there are no standard
spellings yet...but that is exactly the way it was historically for
written spoken languages....and we now have standardized spellings in
spoken languages...so it is possible to develop them, with time.

Regarding SW standardized spellings...

They are developing right now. There are several reasons for this. Here is one:

SignWriter 4.4 Typing Feature:
Pasting Signs From The Dictionary Into Documents

This feature in the SignWriter Computer Program was a surprise to
both Richard Gleaves, the computer programmer of SignWriter, and
myself. We never realized that this computer feature would contribute
to standardized spellings! But it has in a major way, in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, where Deaf children are creating ASL sentences by finding
signs in the dictionary and pasting them into their documents. They
get used to the way the sign looks in the dictionary, so they slowly
become used to reading those signs written in a standard way....

I don't believe you have been using the SW 4.4 dictionary feature
with your SignNet group in Brazil? If so, you might consider building
a good SW 4.4 dictionary in Brazilian Sign Language, since it can
contribute to sign spelling standardization while typing...

Val ;-)

----------------





Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa wrote:
>> There seems to be lacking a common background that would enable
>>the reader to "fill in the blanks". Is that due to the fact that they
>>are "new" to SignWriting? That they are very "few" and can't interact
>>with others outside the hours they meet at the university? Or is that
>>due to the preference for "simplified" writings that I may have
>>induced in them :-) ?
>>
>> Does anyone working with larger groups noticed a different situation?
>>Does anyone know of anybody using written sign languages outside the
>>"formal" context in which (s)he has learnt (or is being taught) how to
>>read and write? Does that person writes "detailed" or "simplified"?
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Antônio Carlos

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