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From:
"Angus B. Grieve-Smith" Date: Mon Oct 18, 1999 2:46 pm Subject: Re: sign for German/Germany | ||||||||||||||||
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> "The old ASL sign for Germany with the index finger at the head is > "representing the helmets from World War I"...at least that is what I > am told. And I was told that Deaf people in Germany felt offended by > that sign used in the USA - ..." I shared an apartment this summer with Christian Rathmann, a Deaf guy from Germany, and he used the index-finger-to-the-forehead sign, but kept correcting himself and using the other sign. If I understand right, the sign is not offensive in Germany, but in fact bears a resemblance to an ASL sign meaning "horny," so Americans felt funny using it to refer to people in "polite company." Is this true? -- Angus B. Grieve-Smith Linguistics Department The University of New Mexico | ||||||||||||||||
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