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From:
Rebecca Larche Moreton Date: Thu Jan 14, 1999 1:29 pm Subject: Re: Notation Systems | ||||||||||||
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Susanne, Antonio, and the person Valerie last quoted are all saying it correctly: writing every little detail of one's gestures, as Hamnosys apparently is designed to do, is writing in a very fine phonetic way; the reader can visualize every tiny movement; this kind of writing is very useful for linguists who are studying the structure of a language, particularly the sounds and the words or parts of words. SignWriting, on the other hand, although based also on movement and orientation, is designed to be read for the actual meaning of the sentences, and thus is much more 'user-friendly' for the general reader or writer. SignWriting CAN show tiny differences in movement, differences that do not make any difference in meaning, but in order for the reader to proceed smoothly through a story, some of the visual detail needs to be left out: some detail is important to the understanding of the meaning, some is not. When SignWriting is adapted to write another sign language, the important details will of course be different from those of ASL. All this is exactly the same as the case with written English or any other spoken language: only linguists love the little details enough to write every little puff of air or slight difference in the sound of a vowel, if those details do not change the meaning of the sentence. When a linguist is interested in the differences between the prononciation of one dialect of English or another, or the differences between the pronunciation of slow and fast speech, or between English and French versions of the sound "R", then detailed PHONETIC transcriptions are fine. But when the linguist wants to write about what he has found out, or when he makes a list of things to pick up at the grocery store, you can bet he uses the ordinary English spellings of word, the spellings that have developed over a long period of time and that any person who has learned to read English can read and understand. These ordinary English spellings are more abstracted from the actual sounds and are used to represent words as whole units, not just individual sounds; Writing and reading phonetic transcriptions takes a lot longer than using regular English spelling. Using phonetic writing can be confusing to the reader; if the writer writes words exactly as he himself pronounces them, and the reader does not pronounce the words just that way, then communication can be difficult. So it is more efficient for us all to write the same, even though we pronounce many words differently depending on where we are from. The regular English spelling system is not perfect as a representation of how English sounds, because English sounds different according to who is speaking it, but the spelling system works fine for communication between any two people who have learned to read it. We can get the exact meaning, if not the exact pronunciation, from the regular spelling. And a writer in Canada or in India or in Wisconsin knows that what he writes in English will be understood by any speaker/reader of English. At the same time, a linguist can happily use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to write anything anybody can say. Most people never use IPA, because most people need to write words, not sounds. Now look at what is going on with with the writing of signed languages: A way of writing signed languages for general use exists, SignWriting. It is an extremely versatile method which can be adapted to any signed language. In its adaptation to ASL, SignWriting has not been accepted yet by everyone who could make use of it, but great strides toward acceptance have been made and are being made every day, thanks to the efforts of Valerie Sutton and the many people who work with her. The astonishing thing about the discussions taking place now on this list is that all the questions which have come up over the centuries concerning the writing of many, many spoken languages, are taking place at one time for ASL and other signed languages, right now, publicly! And the people doing the discussion are signers, teachers in schools for the Deaf, the parents of Deaf children, friends of Deaf people, interpreters, linguists, Valerie Sutton and her associated,and anybody else who is interested! So far as I know, such a situation has never before occurred in the history of the development of written language. What an unusual and exciting thing we are witnessing! This is really a kind of "democracy in language planning," something like a a grass-roots movement; the people who will really use the written form are shaping the development of the form as as they learn it and teach it! I love it! I can hardly wait every day to see the comments of members of this list: the analysis of all the various problems and questions makes this the most interesting discussion list I have found anywhere. Becky (Rebecca Larche Moreton) 301 South Ninth Street Oxford, MS 38655 USA | ||||||||||||
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