>Not surprising considering that many Deaf leaders of other countries
>tend to come to Gallaudet for their higher education. During the years
>there, they get "contaminated" with ASL and bring it home with them. It will
>surely have some influence on wherever they take it.
James Womack
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi James - Yes, it is true that Gallaudet's signs do oftentimes "creep
into" other signed languages around the world. But "true Swedish Sign
Language" still exists too!
I have found that the Gallaudet signs are used when Deaf people know they
are being videotaped, and they know that the videotape will be viewed
worldwide...
I guess some of the Gallaudet signs are becoming a little like the English
language in spoken languages...even Danes are taking English words and
making verbs out of them with Danish endings for fun...and then after
awhile, those verbs become a part of the Danish language. You would think I
would like that, but I was horrified when I heard English verbs being
brought into Danish...being the purist that I am...but there is nothing we
can do about it...such is the nature of language...ever changing...
If we write Swedish Sign Language the way it is signed now, then a hundred
years from now, we can see the evolution of the language....Gallaudet signs
or not!
Valerie ;-)
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