One of my contacts in the Pagan Community is an individual who first introduced me to the concept of signwriting.
For those of you who are not familiar with this, signwriting is
a writing system which uses visual symbols to represent the handshapes, movements, and facial expressions of signed languages. It is an “alphabet” – a list of symbols used to write any signed language in the world.
Basically signwriting uses different symbols to represent the hands and the face in order to show signs in a written format. I think of it as being similar to the concept of hieroglyphs or logograms, as used by the ancient Egyptians, and which can still be found in modern day languages such as Chinese characters or Japanese kanji.
Below are some examples of signwriting:
The circles represent the head/face, the bars/squares represent the hands, and the arrows and dots represent the movement made by the hands.
As you can see, this is rather different from illustrating the sign with a picture of a person as shown below:
According to the information I have read, signwriting dictionaries have been published, as well as lesson books for learning signwriting. In addition, there are children’s books and religious books.
In fact, I have been approached about the possibility of utilizing signwriting as a format for creating translations of Pagan vocabulary and prose into American Sign Language.
However, I have mixed feelings on this whole signwriting concept. Personally, I don’t know anyone other than this individual (who is a hearing sign language user) who knows signwriting. I have not met any Deaf individuals who have indicated they know and use it. I’m curious just how popular signwriting is in the Deaf Community here in the United States. It does appear to be more popular and more accepted in other countries than it is here.
From what I have seen, it seems both the Deaf Community and the signing community (Interpreters, ASL students, Interpreter Training Programs, etc.) utilize video much more than they do a written form of ASL. I’m curious if in fact any Schools for the Deaf or ITPs do in fact use signwriting to teach their deaf students or their ASL/Interpreting students.
Can American Sign Language (or any sign language as used by the Deaf Community) truly be written? Can signwriting really pick up all the nuances of the language – the facial expressions, mouth movements, body positions, gestures and the like that are incorporated into ASL? Can it accurately describe classifiers?
Although the signwriting website states that signwriting can be used to teach sign language to those wishing to learn the language, I question its true ability to do so. I have always stated that one cannot learn sign language from reading a book, and I think this is as true for a signwriting book as it is for an illustrated sign language book, such as The Joy of Signing. Sign Language is a visual language with its own grammar and syntax, and to truly learn it properly one needs to take a class and see it demonstrated by a qualified teacher. This allows for the development not only of expressive, but also receptive skills. At the very least…one needs to be watching videos, not studying a book. While books can be helpful resource tools, they cannot and should not be the instructor.
Indeed…I’m not convinced that I could properly teach someone how to sign The Charge of the Goddess from utilizing the signwriting format. I receive many emails/comments from Pagans wanting to learn how to sign various words and phrases related to our spirituality… but these individuals ask if I will make videos (or at the very least provide English descriptions of the signs I use). I doubt any of them know signwriting, and would question their ability to understand it. Even with my fluency in ASL, I have problems reading signwriting. Granted, I’ve never taken lessons in order to learn this particular medium…but that’s the point – it seems that it would really be mainly effective to those who already know ASL or at least have a basic understanding of it.
I think one really needs to see ASL (or any sign language) actually expressed by a flesh and blood individual – whether in-person or via a video – to truly grasp the intricacies of the language and the concepts that are being conveyed. The Charge of the Goddess is a beautiful piece of prose, and I’m not sure that signwriting could accurately do justice to a translation of it.
On the other hand – in order to be fair…am I (and the Deaf Community in general) dismissing signwriting as just being “nonsense” without giving it the consideration it deserves? Is there a place in the Deaf Community for signwriting? Does it have any true value as a medium for the expression of our language? Could Deaf newsletters and the like be written in signwriting for easier comprehension by the community?
Could signwriting be used in Schools for the Deaf as a method for teaching Deaf children how to read and write English? Are there any schools out there that in fact do incorporate signwriting into their curriculums?
Has the Deaf Community made a true effort to learn more about signwriting and its possible usage? For example, has a workshop on signwriting ever been offered at a National Association of the Deaf conference, or some similar event? Should it be, or is it generally agreed to be “a waste of time; an ineffective faulty tool not worth pursuing?”
I’m not taking sides here – I’m merely asking the questions. I’m still on the fence about this. My big question is the fact that as I stated, I am not aware of anyone who knows and utilizes signwriting…and I am curious why that is the case. Is it because this format has been legitimately studied and determined not to be a valuable asset for further development and usage…or has it just been dismissed out of hand by those who would argue that sign language is not a written language, cannot be written in any form, and thus any attempt to do so is just plain stupid? Or for that matter…am I just “out of the loop” here and not familiar with those who do in fact use it?
Hmmm. Something to think about.
Sooo…what do YOU think, readers? Do any of you know and use signwriting? Would you be interested in learning it? Do you think it does have a place in the Deaf Community? If so, how?
Do you think attempting to create ASL translations of Pagan prose in signwriting would be effective, or would I be better off developing such a project utilizing video instead?
Please share your thoughts…I’m really curious to get feedback on any of these questions. Thank you.
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I’ve seen some examples of signwriting, but it’s never really impressed me. I’m not convinced it’s a system that will ever prove to be really effective as a method for conveying sign language.
One thing I am curious about…the info from Wikipedia suggests that signwriting derived from dancewriting, and was developed by a former dancer. This leaves me wondering about the actual qualifications of the people who created it. What is their background? Are they Deaf? Involved in the Deaf Community? Do they have credentials as sign language linguists? Do they even really know and utilize ASL on a regular basis themselves?
Personally I think it’s a waste of time.
To be honest with you, I don’t like Sign Writing, it’s a notational form. But I have always had a desire to put my ASL in writing, just like English has their written form.
I actually did learn how to write in ASL, but it was not this form of writing– “Sign Writing”– there’s too much graphics involved, not like handwritten-friendly symbols, like latin letters for English or Spanish. I use si5s.
I honestly suggest you check out http://www.si5s.com. I am actually putting it to good use– have written letters, scripts, stories in ASL already. si5s writing has proven much more efficient already, with the simple use of a pen and paper.
I’ve written back and forth with other individuals in ASL and it’s amazing. Such a great feeling.
What it is, is just ASL. It’s designed for the pleasure of writing and reading. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZmh4deF9z
It’s a good idea to research other methods of signwriting. Don Grushkin of California developed one; si5s is another. Stokoe had his own system as well.
Valerie Sutton developed the system you have illustrated here. Yes, she is a choreographer of dance, and on the one occasion we met, she was signing as fluently as a hearing person could, and was attending a Deaf convention. So there is some background here.
It seems impossible to think of a motion-based, 3-dimensional language as a 2-dimensional static writing, but it has so many possibilities that we can only try and develop a easy to use, flexible and workable system.
Are you familiar with Dr DonG’s Deafhood Discourses on YouTube?
In August, last year, he made a series of vlogs about this very topic, and the shortcomings of various forms of sign writing that exist now as a mode of communication in ASL.
He is, in fact, developing a phonetic “alphabet” for ASL (based on phonemic structure of ASL, rather than “borrowing” alphabetic order from English), creating a computer font for it, and trying to write a dictionary (!)
I made a playlist of his vids on the topic, so I could go back and try to study along, here: SignScript. The four vids where he breaks down how signs are spelled in his system come first… I went back and added the vids where he discusses other systems later, and I can’t figure out how to rearrange them, yet.
SignWriting was invented by Val Sutton, a hearing woman. While some people swear by it, the fact that it hasn’t caught on in over 20 years is testimony to its value and authenticity.
si5s.com is a promising, emerging approach by a Deaf man, Bob Arnold. I, however, question why we need a written version (aside from all the arguments about how it can be beneficial for so many uses). I’m of the perhaps old-fashioned camp that we stick to no written version, and use ASL in its natural form instead of trying to find a way to put it on paper.
But if I were forced to try a written version, I’d definitely go with si5s.
Many thanks to everyone who has replied, and shared your thoughts…as well as some good information. Seems I am a bit “out of the loop” since I was not aware of these other signwriting systems. Thanks for educating me!
I must confess that I am leaning towards that old-fashioned camp Northerner mentions – while I do respect that there can be some valid arguments to putting ASL down on paper, I feel more comfortable sticking to the natural form.
While I don’t claim to be a native expert in ASL (I didn’t grow up with the language, being raised oral in a hearing environment), I do have a great deal of love and respect for it and I think I would rather present it in a format that preserves its integrity. It just seems that we lose something when we try to put it on paper – that struggle between a “motion-based, three-dimensional language as a two-dimenstional static writing” that Dianrez was talking about.
I do commend those who have created and continue to work on creating that easy-to-use, flexible, and workable system. Perhaps something will come along that will prove to be viable.
But I think for the time being, I will stick to creating videos.
Once I figure out how to use my iMovie program in my new MacBook, that is.
I have recently picked up the interest for ASL. And researched he history of ASL as it pertains to social standards. The fights all of the DC community (mainly families and friends of DC) had to endure to be taught and use the only form of communication they mainly rely on.
As an individual who first language isn’t ASL Signwriting has helped me tremendously!
I agree with you, Signwriting is not directly made for the DC. But more as a resource for their families and friends.
Signwriting is useful without video conformation of each sign, but once you learn the composition the language in written form because quiet legible.
And as a future ASL ART teacher having a child read a book and form the words along with the pictures, along side other children who are hearing would be a step in the right direction.
To me Signwriting is the missing link to integration of the hearing and the imparied that we have been waiting for.