Sign Language

[treedeer]

Does anyone here speak asl?

[starfish]

I know a few words, but I'm not fluent.  Why do you ask?

[jhereg]

I know a little bit. My wife knows more. (my father-in-law & mother-in-law are deaf, so....)

What's up?

[treedeer]

I have been taking a sign languge class for about 4 or 5 weeks now for a hour every day (4 days a week) and see some definite privliges to communicating in it.  When re-reading the story of B I came across it again and a light flicked on in my brain.  This has a place in the rw community, just where I'm not sure yet.

[jhereg]

I've kind of been thinking a bit along those lines too, but I haven't really been able to put together anything coherent.

Historically, native americans really did use physical gestures (and proper sign language) in various situations for various purposes (the most obvious being as part of the coordination during hunting/war parties, but also heavily during rhetoric/oratory).

I'm very interested in your thoughts on the subject.

[chase]

Well, one of the distinct advantages is being able to puncuate and emphasise what youre saying, especially when you get angry. Then theres the obvious long-distance conversation for hunting or just if you are a long way from someone (or at a drum circle and cant hear them). But by far the most significant is that of many indiginous peoples: if everyone knows signs, then any deaf people in the community are without social and linguistic bariors and are fully integrated in society.

[jhereg]

found this:

http://fookembug.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/talking-hands-the-quiet-language-of-early-native-americans/

the interpreting sounds stilted to me, and i don't think it's fully complete in some cases, but thought some folks here might be interested