Re: Re: Symbols/Universal sign

In a message dated 9/24/98 8:14:01 AM, jchaiken@mindspring.com wrote:

<<<There is no such thing as universal sign language. Each community's sign
language is a naturally formed language with it's own phonology,
morphology, and syntax. If a Deaf American and a Deaf German meet on the
street, they *won't* understand each other.>>

Thank you Jess,
I think I mentioned that it was the closest, LOL - how do you sign "Chicken
Fried Steak" in German? I am more familiar with Word Order Signed English, ALS
is a language in it's own - I have trouble understanding it, people from
California use "SEES" and it thows me for a loop.
I thought basic signs such as "stop", "go", "me", "eat", numbers etc were the
same signs in all languages.  
But, Jess, isn't *Word-Order-Signed-English* more transferable?  Please
correct me if I am wrong, one can never know too much about such things.

It would be an interesting experiment to use graphic images of Signs for
naviagtion etc on a website except some would have to be animated gifs.
("Home" is a 2 motion sign) or require more than one image to represent each
image. (?)
I have seen animated gifs finger-spelling  words on websites,  a bit too much
bytes. But surely using these would alienate those who do not read Sign or
have trouble processing Signing.
Back to graphic symbols!!
Check out Bliss Symbolics (thanks Bruce) they are very easy to learn and use:
http://home.istar.ca/~bci/blin2.htm
KPR, (= Kindest personal regards)
LK

Received on Thursday, 24 September 1998 10:39:51 UTC