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Sign languages are not coded speech. They are languages with their own grammar and vocabulary. For example, American SL is descended from Old French Sign Lang

by retrac 4y ago

Sign languages are not coded speech. They are languages with their own grammar and vocabulary. For example, American SL is descended from Old French Sign Language and is partially understandable by French SL speakers today, while British SL is completely different, not in the same language family. It is even possible to write sign language. it is done like with spoken language. The most basic components, akin to phonemes in spoken language, are a closed set, assigning a symbol to each allows lossless transcription. Mostly used by linguists; but there are some books in ASL. Deaf people who speak sign language natively approach English as a second language. And it is hard to learn a spoken language when deaf. English literacy rates among ASL native speakers are rather low.

lazyeye 4y ago
This has to be a generational thing. There is no way a deaf person growing up now is not going to be using the internet.
- retrac 4y ago
  Partial literacy is all you need for YouTube or video calls. Plenty of hearing people can read well enough for that too, or to find what they need at the store, but can't read well enough to e.g. summarize the main points of a newspaper story. I've seen estimates that something like 20 - 40% of Americans are functionally illiterate in that way. For the Deaf, it is even higher.
- adammarples 4y ago
  A speech and language therapist tells me that spelling and reading is hard for deaf children because we match phonics to text but they don't have access to phonics, so they have much lower literacy levels without specialist help
amelius 4y ago
Still, I suppose that many people still want the original phrasing, not a translation where subtleties might get lost.
- lolinder 4y ago
  Closed captions are usually available for that need (which is also helpful for people who became hard of hearing later in life). But that's a separate need than what is effectively translation.

by retrac 4y ago

lazyeye 4y ago

This has to be a generational thing. There is no way a deaf person growing up now is not going to be using the internet.

retrac 4y ago
Partial literacy is all you need for YouTube or video calls. Plenty of hearing people can read well enough for that too, or to find what they need at the store, but can't read well enough to e.g. summarize the main points of a newspaper story. I've seen estimates that something like 20 - 40% of Americans are functionally illiterate in that way. For the Deaf, it is even higher.
adammarples 4y ago
A speech and language therapist tells me that spelling and reading is hard for deaf children because we match phonics to text but they don't have access to phonics, so they have much lower literacy levels without specialist help

amelius 4y ago

Still, I suppose that many people still want the original phrasing, not a translation where subtleties might get lost.

lolinder 4y ago
Closed captions are usually available for that need (which is also helpful for people who became hard of hearing later in life). But that's a separate need than what is effectively translation.