scholarly journals Exploring Phonological Aspects of Australian Indigenous Sign Languages

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Eleanor Jorgensen ◽  
Jennifer Green ◽  
Anastasia Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Indigenous Australia ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Articulatory Features

Spoken languages make up only one aspect of the communicative landscape of Indigenous Australia—sign languages are also an important part of their rich and diverse language ecologies. Australian Indigenous sign languages are predominantly used by hearing people as a replacement for speech in certain cultural contexts. Deaf or hard-of-hearing people are also known to make use of these sign languages. In some circumstances, sign may be used alongside speech, and in others it may replace speech altogether. Alternate sign languages such as those found in Australia occupy a particular place in the diversity of the world’s sign languages. However, the focus of research on sign language phonology has almost exclusively been on sign languages used in deaf communities. This paper takes steps towards deepening understandings of signed language phonology by examining the articulatory features of handshape and body locations in the signing practices of three communities in Central and Northern Australia. We demonstrate that, while Australian Indigenous sign languages have some typologically unusual features, they exhibit the same ‘fundamental’ structural characteristics as other sign languages.

scholarly journals Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Mineiro ◽  
Patrícia Carmo ◽  
Cristina Caroça ◽  
Mara Moita ◽  
Sara Carvalho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Common Space ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Common Sign ◽  
Set Up

Abstract In Sao Tome and Principe there are approximately five thousand deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Until recently, these people had no language to use among them other than basic home signs used only to communicate with their families. With this communication gap in mind, a project was set up to help them come together in a common space in order to create a dedicated environment for a common sign language to emerge. In less than two years, the first cohort began to sign and to develop a newly emerging sign language – the Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language (LGSTP). Signs were elicited by means of drawings and pictures and recorded from the beginning of the project. The emergent structures of signs in this new language were compared with those reported for other emergent sign languages such as the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and the Lengua de Señas de Nicaragua, and several similarities were found at the first stage. In this preliminary study on the emergence of LGSTP, it was observed that, in its first stage, signs are mostly iconic and exhibit a greater involvement of the articulators and a larger signing space when compared with subsequent stages of LGSTP emergence and with other sign languages. Although holistic signs are the prevalent structure, compounding seems to be emerging. At this stage of emergence, OSV seems to be the predominant syntactic structure of LGSTP. Yet the data suggest that new signers exhibit difficulties in syntactic constructions with two arguments.

Developing Sign Language Measurements for Research With Deaf Populations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Henner ◽  
Robert Hoffmeister ◽  
Jeanne Reis
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Deprivation ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Hearing Children

Limited choices exist for assessing the signed language development of deaf and hard of hearing children. Over the past 30 years, the American Sign Language Assessment Instrument (ASLAI) has been one of the top choices for norm-referenced assessment of deaf and hard of hearing children who use American Sign Language. Signed language assessments can also be used to evaluate the effects of a phenomenon known as language deprivation, which tends to affect deaf children. They can also measure the effects of impoverished and idiosyncratic nonstandard signs and grammar used by educators of the deaf and professionals who serve the Deaf community. This chapter discusses what was learned while developing the ASLAI and provides guidelines for educators and researchers of the deaf who seek to develop their own signed language assessments.

Seeing sentence boundaries

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Fenlon ◽  
Tanya Denmark ◽  
Ruth Campbell ◽  
Bencie Woll
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
Syntactic Boundaries ◽  
British Sign

Linguists have suggested that non-manual and manual markers are used in sign languages to indicate prosodic and syntactic boundaries. However, little is known about how native signers interpret non-manual and manual cues with respect to sentence boundaries. Six native signers of British Sign Language (BSL) were asked to mark sentence boundaries in two narratives: one presented in BSL and one in Swedish Sign Language (SSL). For comparative analysis, non-signers undertook the same tasks. Results indicated that both native signers and non-signers were able to use visual cues effectively in segmentation and that their decisions were not dependent on knowledge of the signed language. Signed narratives contain visible cues to their prosodic structure which are available to signers and non-signers alike.

Using signed language collocations to investigate acquisition: A commentary on Ambridge (2020)

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 585-591
Author(s):  
Lynn Hou ◽  
Jill P. Morford
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Test Case ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language

The visual-manual modality of sign languages renders them a unique test case for language acquisition and processing theories. In this commentary the authors describe evidence from signed languages, and ask whether it is consistent with Ambridge’s proposal. The evidence includes recent research on collocations in American Sign Language that reveal collocational frequency effects and patterns that do not constitute syntactic constituents. While these collocations appear to resist fully abstract schematization, further consideration of how speakers create exemplars and how they link exemplar clouds based on tokens and how much abstraction is involved in their creation is warranted.

scholarly journals The Georgian Dactyl Alphabet

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Shota Makharoblidze
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Mixed Type ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Theoretical Base ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Russian Language

<p>In the Soviet period sign languages in this region were highly influenced by the Russian language and the old Georgian dactyl alphabet was totally based on the Russian one, with only a few additional specific letters.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The idea of creating a new original Georgian dactyl alphabet came form the local community of deaf and hard of hearing people and I was honored to work together with these people on this project. The creation of a new original dactyl alphabet based on Georgian letters was a natural step for Georgia and consistent with the sign language nationalization developments in the post-Soviet linguistic space.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This paper presents the results of our work: the new Georgian dactyl alphabet. This alphabet is one-handed with the dactyls which are easy to create and to move between. The method of processing is a mixed type and it is a letter-dactyl (non-syllabic) alphabet by the principle of marking.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In the presented papers we also display the theoretical base and the main principles for the dactyl alphabets and the 10 rules of dactiling.</p>

scholarly journals Sign Language Research and Linguistic Theory

1986 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Evans
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Structural Levels

Linguistic theory has traditionally defined language in terms of speech and has, as a result, labelled sign languages as non-linguistic systems. Recent advances in sign language linguistic research, however, indicate that modern linguistic theory must include sign language research and theory. This paper examines the historical bias linguistic theory has maintained towards sign languages and refutes the classification of sign languages as contrived artificial systems by surveying current linguistic research into American Sign Language. The growing body of American Sign Language research demonstrates that a signed language can have all the structural levels of spoken language despite its visual-spatial mode. This research also indicates that signed languages are an important source of linguistic data that can help further develop a cognitive linguistic theory.

Family ASL: An Early Start to Equitable Education for Deaf Children

2021 ◽  
pp. 027112142110313
Author(s):  
Diane C. Lillo-Martin ◽  
Elaine Gale ◽  
Deborah Chen Pichler
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Early Exposure ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Early Adoption ◽  
Language Deprivation ◽  
Equitable Education

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children experience systematic barriers to equitable education due to intentional or unintentional ableist views that can lead to a general lack of awareness about the value of natural sign languages and insufficient resources supporting sign language development. Furthermore, an imbalance of information in favor of spoken languages often stems from a phonocentric perspective that views signing as an inferior form of communication that also hinders the development of spoken language. On the contrary, research demonstrates that early adoption of a natural sign language confers critical protection from the risks of language deprivation without endangering spoken language development. In this position paper, we draw attention to deep societal biases about language in the information presented to parents of DHH children, against early exposure to a natural sign language. We outline actions that parents and professionals can adopt to maximize DHH children’s chances for on-time language development.

scholarly journals Rhythmic Techniques in Deaf Hip Hop

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabel Maler ◽  
Robert Komaniecki
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Rhythm And Meter ◽  
Musical Context

The art of signed music involves the use of rhythmicized signs from a signed language, such as American Sign Language (ASL), in a musical context. Signed music encompasses a variety of subgenres, including ASL hip hop or “dip hop.” A typical dip hop performance involves a Deaf or hard-of-hearing artist simultaneously performing vocalized and signed rapping over a looped background beat. Although dip hop emerged as a grassroots movement in the early 1990s, it has received little analytical attention in the scholarly literature on hip hop. In this paper, the authors combine techniques adapted from analyzing rhythm in non-signed rap music with techniques adapted from analyzing non-rapped signed music to analyze the rhythmic flow of tracks by dip hop artists Sean Forbes, Wawa, and Signmark. The authors demonstrate that dip hop artists have developed genre-specific rhythmic paradigms and tropes to convey the periodicity and rhyme that are fundamental to rap music. Specifically, we address the alignment of rhythm and meter in signed and vocal rap and the conveyance of a repeated “beat” through rhythmic signing. The analyses of dip hop tracks reveal important differences between dip hop and vocal rap, as well as differences between the conventions of dip hop and ASL poetry.

scholarly journals Coming out of the hard of hearing closet: Reflections on a shared journey in academia

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke ◽  
Brenda Nicodemus
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Professional Relationships ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
Academic Ethics ◽  
Communication Preferences ◽  
Signed Language

<p>Deaf academics who navigate aspects of their professional lives through signed language interpreting services face a range of issues, including handling perceptions of their Hearing peers, identifying and negotiating their own communication preferences, and balancing personal and professional relationships with their interpreters. Interpreters bring individual sets of schemas and skills to their work, which impacts the interpreted interaction. In this paper, a Deaf academic and her interpreter/colleague discuss various challenges in having an interpreter&mdash;and being an interpreter&mdash;in academia. Topics include being &ldquo;outed&rdquo; as a person with a disability because of the presence of an interpreter; the need for interpreters with specialized academic vocabulary; the responsibilities of the Deaf academic and the interpreter in interpreted interactions; and the sense of vulnerability, intimacy, and autonomy experienced by the Deaf academic and the interpreter. The article is a shared reflection about the evolution of a relationship, beginning with the authors&rsquo; respective roles as client and interpreter, and leading into to their present alliance as colleagues and friends.</p><p>Key words:&nbsp;interpretation, Deaf, academic, ethics, disability, autonomy, vulnerability, intimacy, philosophy, hard of hearing, hearing impaired, sign language, oral interpreting, American Sign Language</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

scholarly journals Hand Gesture Recognition using Deep Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-459
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Gesture Recognition ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Hand Gesture Recognition ◽  
Hand Gesture ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Real Time System ◽  
Binary Images

Hearing impaired individuals use sign languages to communicate with others within the community. Because of the wide spread use of this language, hard-of-hearing individuals can easily understand it but it is not known by a lot of normal people. In this paper a hand gesture recognition system has been developed to overcome this problem, for those who don't recognize sign language to communicate simply with hard-of-hearing individuals. In this paper a computer vision-based system is designed to detect sign Language. Datasets used in this paper are binary images. These images are given to the convolution neural network (CNN). This model extracts the features of the image and classifies the images, and it recognises the gestures. The gestures used in this paper are of American Sign Language. In real time system the images are converted to binary images using Hue, Saturation, and Value (HSV) colour model. In this model 87.5% of data is used for training and 12.5% of data is used for testing and the accuracy obtained with this model is 97%.

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