Writing Signed Languages
In Support of Adopting an ASL Writing System

by
Amy Rosenberg
Master's Thesis, University of Kansas
Department of Linguistics, 1999

...back to Table of Contents....
Introduction Chapter 5, Part 1 Appendix B
Chapter 1 Chapter 5, Part 2 Appendix C
Chapter 2 Chapter 6 Appendix D & E
Chapter 3 Summary & Bibliography Appendix F
Chapter 4 Appendix A Appendix G


Chapter 5, Part Two


SignWriting Specifics

Based on Stokoe's conception of the cheremes of sign language, but including a few additional handshapes (see Appendix C) this section will detail how SignWriting writes the sign phonemes of American Sign Language, what are the extra and unnecessary pieces found in SignWriting, and which symbols are used by SignWriting that might be changed. As seen in Appendix A, there are ten groups of hands that comprise the handshape symbols found in SignWriting. Group one symbolizes those hands which extend the index finger, group two extends the index and middle fingers, group three extends the thumb, index and middle fingers, group four extends the four fingers and group five extends all fingers on the hand. Group six extends the middle three fingers, group seven symbolizes a hand with the thumb and ring fingers not extended, group eight hands do not extend the thumb and middle fingers, group nine symbols do not extend the index or thumb and group ten symbols have only the thumb extended.

Within any group, also exemplified in Group 1, Appendix A, the symbol encodes for palm orientation, in what way the finger(s) are bent as well as whether the hand is horizontal or vertical. The symbols can encode for the extent to which a fist is closed, open or flat and forward as well. Based on the forty-one basic handshapes in Appendix C, forty-one corresponding SignWriting symbols can be used and their group numbers are given in Appendix F.

Stokoe's Tab symbols, as seen in Appendix B are the basic locations in ASL. The first, neutral place, is not written in SignWriting. It is the default location. The face is written . Location numbers three through seven all make use of that circle with a smaller circle in the proper position to symbolize the forehead , chin , cheek , etc.

Location eight is symbolized by a horizontal bar , which actually symbolizes the shoulders. The arm and elbow are symbolized by a line drawn attached to the appropriate SignWriting handshape . The wrist locations are also shown as part of the handshapes in combination with a touch symbol .

 

 

 

 

The SignWriting touch symbols include basic contact , strike , grasp , brush , in between contact , and rubbing contact.

The twenty-four movements postulated by Stokoe are also more than accounted for with SignWriting symbols. Observing the Sig symbols in Appendix B, one can write movements thirty-two through thirty-four with double arrows. Thirty-five through forty are written with single arrows. Forty-one, forty-two and forty-three are written with twisted double arrows with one line through them. The nodding action (44) is written with an arrow placed by the face symbol. Forty-five, forty-six and forty seven are written using the finger movement SignWriting symbols. SignWriting uses a small filled in circle (near the handshape) for the finger joint closing, a small empty circle for its opening, a symbol which looks roughly like ^ to symbolize the knuckle opening and that symbol upside-down to symbol the knuckle closing. ^^ symbolizes opening and closing and that symbol on top of itself (in two rows) symbolizes opening and closing in an alternating fashion. Movements forty-eighty through fifty-five are represented by either the arrows, with their stems appropriately shaped to indicate the movement, or the contact symbols mentioned in discussion of location above. See Figure 10.

Figure 10:
Stokoe's Movement Phonemes in SignWriting

 

...continue Chapter 5, Part 2...

...back to Table of Contents....
Introduction Chapter 5, Part 1 Appendix B
Chapter 1 Chapter 5, Part 2 Appendix C
Chapter 2 Chapter 6 Appendix D & E
Chapter 3 Summary & Bibliography Appendix F
Chapter 4 Appendix A Appendix G

Write to the author...

Amy Rosenberg
amy_nemiccolo@yahoo.com