CAPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Cindy
Hi! My name is Lucinda O'Grady Batch. Welcome to
our video series "Lessons in SignWriting".
This second video is called "SignWriting Basics".
I will teach basic handshapes, contact symbols,
and movement symbols necessary for reading basic
SignWriting.
Kevin
Hi. My name is Kevin Clark. I enjoyed the first
video very much. I learned a lot too!
Cindy
That's great. The first video was called "Introduction
to SignWriting". Beginning students should
watch that video first, then this one second. Remember
what we discussed in the first video?
Kevin
Yes. First we discussed what SignWriting is used
for. It is used for reading, writing, and preserving
American Sign Language, or ASL, our native language.
Also for writing signed languages from other countries.
Cindy
Yes. That's right. We also discussed the Expressive
and Receptive viewpoints. We write signs Expressively.
Remember what that means?
Kevin
Yes..We read and write ASL from our own Expressive
viewpoint, looking at our own hands. We don't write
how another person signs...we write our own signing.
Cindy
That's right. I showed a few basic symbols,
signs, and an ASL sentence "written-across-page-fromleft-to-right",
also "down-thepage".
Kevin
Yes. I remember. That was really interesting. I
like writing "downthe-page" myself.
Cindy
Yes. I too. It is important that you view the first
video to receive all that information in depth.
Now we will begin SignWriting Basics.
First let me show you three basic handshapes. Look
at the top symbol. It is a square for the fist.
It represents a closed fist. The next symbol is
a circle. Why? Because the fingertips touch each
other. It is not a closed fist like the square.
It is an open fist, a circle. The third symbol is
the flat hand. You see the palm of the hand. The
fingers are tight together. That is the flat hand.
Now let's look at the next row of symbols. Remember
the square for the fist? Imagine a finger sticking
up. As you can see in the top diagram, you have
the square for the fist with a line for the finger.
In the second symbol, you can see the circle, but
now a line is added to show the finger sticking
up. Looking at the last symbol. We have a flat hand
with the fingers spread.
3 Basic Handshapes
Closed FistOpen Fist
3 Basic Handshapes
Index Hand
D - Hand
5 - Hand
Kevin
Ok. So one finger is sticking up in the "D"
handshape, but what would happen if two fingers
were sticking up?
Cindy
If two fingers were sticking up,
you would add another line to the circle. The handshape
is a circle because it is an "open fist".
No fingers are touching the palm of the hand.
two fingers up
one finger up
with open fist
with open fist
one finger up
two fingers up
with closed fist
with closed fist
Kevin
You mean you wouldn't use the square
symbol ?
Cindy
No. Well...if you had a closed fist
with two fingers sticking up then yes, you would
use the square symbol. Remember that the square
means a "closed fist". The fingertips
are touching the palm of the hand. But the circle
means that the fingertips are touching each other.
Let me explain two different planes. Up-Down, and
Forward-Back. Look at the left row of symbols. The
index finger is pointing up. First the palm is facing
you. Then you see the side view. Then you see the
back of the hand:
The right row of symbols are hands parallel with
the floor. How do you know that? Because there is
a break in the finger line...a space at the knuckle
joint. That space means the hand is parallel with
the floor.
So in review...the row of symbols to the left have
the finger line connected to the square. That means
the hands are up or down, parallel with the wall.
When you see the space, the hand is parallel with
the floor. First the palm is up, then the side view,
and then the back of the hand.
The Index Hand
space at knuckle joint means hand is parallel with
the floor
Now let me show you a few signs.
Look at the sign for "argue" at the top
left of the chart. We have the two Index Hands facing
the body, and then we have the movement arrows.
The dark arrowhead is movement with the right hand,
and the light arrowhead is movement with the left
hand. The little curved line means that the movement
is done with both hands at the same time (Simultaneous
Line). Look at the next sign, for "sign".
Notice the two circles. The circles are moving in
an alternating fashion, and they are done twice
because there are two arrowheads.
Kevin
So the finger line without a break
means the hand is parallel with the wall, and the
finger line with the break means the hand is parallel
with the floor?
Cindy
Right!! Now let me show you another
handshape, the "D" hand, first parallel
with the wall, or the Wall Plane and second, parallel
with the floor, or the Floor Plane. Look at the
top symbol to the left in the diagram. The palm
is facing the body. The second symbol shows the
side view, and the third symbol is the back view.
Now, if the handshapes are parallel with the floor,
they look different...
Kevin
Because there is a break in the line
for the finger?
Cindy
Exactly. Look at the diagrams to
the right on the chart. The hands are parallel with
the floor. First you see the palm, then the side
view, and then the back view...all parallel with
the Floor Plane.
Now let me show you some signs. Look at the sign
at the top left of the chart. As you can see we
have the "D" handshape facing your body.
Kevin
Does that curved line on the circle
represent a frown?
Cindy
No. That is the "location"
on the face where the hand contacts the face. The
two asterisks represent contacting the chin two
times. That is the sign for "dinner".
Looking at the bottom, these three signs are parallel
with the floor. Do you notice a difference between
the signs for "dating" and "dessert"?
Kevin
Yes. The sign for "dating"
has no break in the lines for the fingers, but the
sign for "dessert" does, because the hands
are parallel with the floor.
Cindy
Right!! The space
at knuckle joint means hand is parallel with the
floor.
The "D" Hand
Front View
Hands Parallel With The Wall
argue
sign
where
Top View
Hands Parallel With The Floor
happen
you
same
Front View
Hands Parallel With The Wall
dinner
dating
democracy
Top View
Hands Parallel With The Floor
do-do?
dessert
doctor
Cindy
Here is another basic hand symbol,
the Flat Hand. The symbols to the left are
parallel with the front wall, or the Wall Plane.
The symbol to the top left has the palmfacing the
body. The next symbol is the side view. And the
third symbol is the back view. They are not parallel
with the floor. They are parallel with the wall.
The symbols to the right are parallel with the floor,
or the Floor Plane. The symbol to the top right
has the palm facing up. The next symbol is the side
view. And the third symbol has the palm facing down.
They are parallel with the floor because there is
a break at the knuckle joint. Whenever you see a
handshape that has a break at the knuckle joint,
you know it is parallel with the floor.
Here are some signs using the Flat Hand. On the
top row you see the sign for "window",
which has the palms facing the body. The arrows
show movement with the right hand going up and down
with contact. See the little curved line connecting
the movement symbols in the sign for "house"?
That means that the movements for the left and right
hands are done at the same time. Looking at the
bottom row, what is the difference between the signs
for "things" and "children"?
Kevin
Well...the sign for "things"
has the palm facing up, but the sign for "children"
has the palm facing down.
Cindy
That's right! The only difference
between the two signs is the palm orientation. The
movement is exactly the same, it is just the palm
facing that is different.
Now we will focus on Contact Symbols. We will present
three of them. Actually there are six Contact Symbols
in all, but on this video we will focus on the three
that are most commonly used. The first is the Touch
Contact Symbol. It is a basic asterisk. Look at
the sign for "dating". As you can see,
there are two asterisks, meaning "two times
contact". In the sign for "Deaf",
we have the circle for the face and the Touch Contact
Symbol shows contact on the face with the index
finger.
The Flat Hand
The Flat Hand with a space at the
knuckle joint means hand is parallel with the floor.
Front View
Hands Parallel With The Wall
window
house
their
Top View
Hands Parallel With The Floor
things
way
children
Touch Contact
dating
Deaf
Cindy
Here is the Brushing Contact Symbol.
The Brush Symbol means that the movement is brushing
"off the surface". It is the feeling of
truly brushing the hands. Look at the sign for "monthly".
The movement with the right hand brushes down twice,
brushing "off" the surface.
Kevin
So this indicates two downward strokes
for the sign "monthly"?
Cindy
Yes. That's right.
Now we see the Rub Contact Symbol. This symbol gives
the "feeling of rubbing". It moves and
"stays on the surface". In the sign for
"coffee" it rubs in a circle, almost as
if you are stirring the coffee. In the sign for
"temperature", however, we have movement
arrows going up and down with the right hand...
Kevin
So the Rub Symbol makes a circular
motion in the sign for "temperature"?
Cindy
Oh no. It really doesn't. Imagine
if you threw out the movement arrows and you only
had the Rub Symbol. Then it would be rubbing in
a circle...but because we have the movement arrows,
it means the rubbing is going in the direction of
those arrows. Remember, the Rub Symbol represents
movement that "stays on the surface".
If it were the Brush Symbol, then it would move
"off the surface" as in the sign for "monthly",
but because it is the Rub Symbol, it "stays
on the surface" as in the sign for "temperature".
Brush Contact
monthly
easy
excuse
Rub Contact
temperature
coffee
nice
Now we will focus on movement symbols. We will show
movement arrows on two different planes...the plane
parallel with the wall and the plane parallel with
the floor.
Here we have the arrow with the double stem line.
It means movement up or down, parallel with the
wall. In this case, it is moving down. In the sign
for "house", the movement arrow is a combination
of first moving down diagonally and second moving
straight down.
Now, looking at the next symbol...it is parallel
with the floor. It has a single stem. It means movement
"forward".
Kevin
It's not movement upward?
Cindy
Oh no. It is not movement upward.
If it were upward, it would have a double stemline,
but the single stemline means that it is movement
forward, parallel with the floor.
Movement Down
Parallel With The Wall
argue
house
Movement Forward
Parallel With The Floor
way
you
Here we have a sentence that asks a question. First,
we have the circle for the head. Can you see the
little arrow above the circle?
Kevin
Yes. Does that mean the head moves
upward?
Cindy
No. That means the head projects
forward. And then you have the eyebrows up in a
question. What do you think that thin & thick
line at the end means?
Kevin
The end of the sentence?
Cindy
Well. A little bit different. Do
you remember before we learned that two lines can
represent a pause or a break in a sentence, and
a thick line marks the end of a sentence? Well,
this is a combination of those two symbols. It is
a little pause before the end of the sentence. It
's like a question mark. An English translation
of this sentence might be: "Are you Deaf?"
Now let me show you another way of writing...writing
down the page. Our first sentence was written from
left to right across the page, but this new sentence
is written down the page. Looking at the sign at
the top of the sentence. Notice the eyebrows. They
are down or in. The head is projecting forward.
The question mark symbol at the end of the sentence
is now horizontal instead of vertical. In English,
this sentence could be translated: "Where is
the house?" You Deaf you ?
Where
house
where
Kevin
Wow!!
SignWriting® is really nice because it has so
many features that allow us to describe ASL.Yeah.
We have facial expressions, movement symbols, hand
symbols, everything is included. You know, it's
really nice, because English has been used, in the
past, for writing English glosses of ASL, but glosses
just don't do justice to ASL, as SignWriting®
does. It's nice to have our own way of writing our
own language!
And it's easier to read too!
Cindy
Ok. Well...I guess that's the end
of this lesson!
Goodbye!!
If
you want information about SignWriting contact us!
Deaf Action Committee For SignWriting • P.O.
Box 517 • La Jolla • CA • 92038
USA • DAC@SignWriting.org • SignWriting
Web Site: https://www.SignWriting.org
|
