SignWriting List
April 1, 2002
James Kegl wrote:
>SW, as we all know, is a fantastic system for presenting Biblical passages,
>or for that matter Qu'ranic verse (my apologies if I misspelled that), in a
>written medium accessible to literate Deaf readers. Evangelists in
>Nicaragua have already begun to show an interest in using SW in their
>missionary efforts -- how could they not!.
Hello James!
Nice to see you back....I just received your newsletter about your
recent trip to Nicaragua, and I look forward to reading it in detail
later. And thanks for the above paragraph...strictly from a
SignWriting perspective, I feel happy to know the writing system is
of use to people in general...I had no idea others were using
SignWriting in Nicaragua (even just a little bit), outside your two
schools there....so that gives me a perspective that SignWriting
seems to be easy enough, that new groups are willing to try to write
signs....
Obviously all writing systems can be used to write good or bad
grammar, good or profane vocabulary, and even politically-incorrect
literature, if that is what the authors choose. I think it was
inevitable, James, with all the work you are doing writing Nicaraguan
Sign Language literature, that if the writing system has merit,
sooner or later, it would spread to other groups in Nicaragua. That
is actually to your credit....
The only solution is to reach out to them in a positive fashion, and
invite them to meet your Deaf teachers, and to use your written
materials - When they come to visit your school, or when your Deaf
teachers go to visit them, the language issues can be mentioned, and
you may find they will be interested and will learn from you...
Val ;-)
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