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> What’s the written representation of ASL? Is it really a preference to use glyphs instead of letters? That's the thing: unlike most spoken languages, sign l

> What’s the written representation of ASL? Is it really a preference to use glyphs instead of letters? That's the thing: unlike most spoken languages, sign languages don't have written equivalents. Deaf people often use the written language of their local community, however, someone who speaks Spanish Sign Language writing in Spanish has more to do with geography than linguistics. > I’m not sure what dreams has to do with written representations. I’m not hard of hearing and I don’t dream in writing and sounds are completely different in my dreams than waking life. My point was that their brains experience and process information differently than hearing people: it isn't just that sign languages are visual while spoken languages are audible. It's difficult to understand why and how deaf people's experiences differ without talking to an actual deaf person.

dhosek 4y ago
There are written equivalents for sign languages, although their use is controversial among some (but not all) Deaf people. Spoken language is essentially one-dimensional: it’s a series of phonemes (and tones, even in non-tonal language—consider the difference between “It’s here.” and “It’s here?") in a chronological order. The movements that make up sign language are a bit more difficult to represent in that one-dimensional sequence, although not impossible. I imagine that millennia ago when written languages were created, there was similar resistance to replacing sounds with marks on mud/bone/stone/bark/etc.
- richbell 4y ago
  > There are written equivalents for sign languages, although their use is controversial among some (but not all) Deaf people. Interesting, I haven't encountered any in my neck of the woods (albeit I am hearing and not really active in of deaf communities outside of family). Do you know what the most "popular" written equivalents would be? I don't think it's impossible to represent sign languages in written form, either via existing languages like English or newly developed glyphs and symbols. However, people often don't seem to understand how complex deaf culture and languages are, likely because deaf communities can be quite insular (either by choice or because of discrimination/isolation), which makes it a difficult problem to discuss. Developing a fluent method of bidirectional communication between hearing an deaf people requires a fair bit of empathy, and I suspect the only people who really understand both deaf and hearing 'culture' are codas[0]; that said, I'd hope that raising awareness about common misconceptions would go a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_deaf_adult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_deaf_adult
  - dhosek 4y ago
    The main one is Sutton SignWriting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting I first learned about its existence from a book by Doyald Young where he showed his design for the first font for SignWriting. As a Hard of Hearing individual, the lack of empathy, let alone accommodation, for people with hearing loss is staggering.

dhosek 4y ago

There are written equivalents for sign languages, although their use is controversial among some (but not all) Deaf people. Spoken language is essentially one-dimensional: it’s a series of phonemes (and tones, even in non-tonal language—consider the difference between “It’s here.” and “It’s here?") in a chronological order. The movements that make up sign language are a bit more difficult to represent in that one-dimensional sequence, although not impossible. I imagine that millennia ago when written languages were created, there was similar resistance to replacing sounds with marks on mud/bone/stone/bark/etc.

richbell 4y ago
> There are written equivalents for sign languages, although their use is controversial among some (but not all) Deaf people. Interesting, I haven't encountered any in my neck of the woods (albeit I am hearing and not really active in of deaf communities outside of family). Do you know what the most "popular" written equivalents would be? I don't think it's impossible to represent sign languages in written form, either via existing languages like English or newly developed glyphs and symbols. However, people often don't seem to understand how complex deaf culture and languages are, likely because deaf communities can be quite insular (either by choice or because of discrimination/isolation), which makes it a difficult problem to discuss. Developing a fluent method of bidirectional communication between hearing an deaf people requires a fair bit of empathy, and I suspect the only people who really understand both deaf and hearing 'culture' are codas[0]; that said, I'd hope that raising awareness about common misconceptions would go a long way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_deaf_adult https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_deaf_adult
- dhosek 4y ago
  The main one is Sutton SignWriting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting I first learned about its existence from a book by Doyald Young where he showed his design for the first font for SignWriting. As a Hard of Hearing individual, the lack of empathy, let alone accommodation, for people with hearing loss is staggering.