Valerie,
I looked at your message saying "both are correct" in terms of how to write
"father" and "mother" with the fingers sticking toward the head, and that
really strikes me as putting a monkey wrench in the SW system.
The second sign, to me, looks like the Libras sign for "esquecer" (forget),
which has the thumb projecting out at right angles from the 5 hand. The
whole "dot" series is extremely difficult to write quickly, though it may be
iconographic. It is used, specifically, for the "right-angle-5 system".
When I have been teaching SW writing, as have my other colleagues in Brasil,
the beauty has been in that "this system is clear, unmistakable, and
accurate, a sign can be written one way, unmistakably, and if the system is
changed to accomodate a clearer picture, then the "new" writing needs to
"replace" the old, not simply be a variant.
If I hold my hand at position X, and do movement Y, there should be one way,
and only one way, that it can be written accurately, clearly, unmistakably
in SW so that it can be read back by someone not present. I don't care
which way that is, Valerie, but you are the inventor, and you have the right
to make a value judgment as no one else does. We have all been looking to
make SW universal, but if the system begins to become fuzzy, rather than
truly the equivalent of the International Phonetic Alphabet" in which "a"
for example represents the sound in "father" NOT in hate, so SW needs to be
consistent, from top to bottom. If your position X (the first one) which
has been used for Father for over 20 years now is to be changed, then change
it, don't give a "variant" writing. If it was readable twenty years ago,
and is still readable, because a split hand means hand-edge toward you, then
WHY add anything more other than to shift the hand to the other side of the
face to make the thumb position easier to read. With the "dot" signs, you
destroy a perfectly good system of six hand positions and clutter up the
system with extraneous information unless those hands, like the
right-angle-5 truly cannot be written any other way.
In preparing a dictionary, I am prepared to do distinct signs, but when the
system begins to get "fuzzy" and hand positions and writing are no longer
one way, I, as an editor, will have to write every sign both ways, include
both hand orientations in the alphabet, and no longer have an accurate
system. It makes the study impossible, and prohibitive.
Seriously concerned,
Charles Butler
----- Original Message -----
From: Valerie Sutton
To:
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: Hard-to-Write Handshapes
> SignWriting List
> April 10, 2001
>
> Here is another example of dots used to show fingers projecting
> towards or away from the reader:
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