It’s true. My sign name is the letter J, for my first name, but one moves the little finger in a circle up by the side of the head, like “Crazy J.” That stuff gets used all the time, but is not always as obvious to non-signing people.
I learned a tiny bit of ASL in college from hanging out with a few deaf people, then some more when we had kids and bought a bunch of kids’ sign language DVDs. Little kids are able to do some signing earlier than they’re able to manage speech, and I know that helped our kids to communicate when they were super young.
(You know all this, but I felt like saying it for the passers-by.) I know that a mistake hearing people often make is thinking that sign language is just a word-for-word substitution for whatever spoken language is primary where you live. It’s really a different language, grammar and all, definitely including those “combination” signs you’re talking about.
Baby signing is a really useful thing to have evolved from all this, as you are correct that young one’s can think in words much earlier than their vocal systems come on line. We’re such a weird species, to be born in such an under developed state, which development takes years, or a whole lifetime to complete. :-D
Treat my answer as what it is - hearsay - but the way I remember reading about it being explained, there is indeed sign-language poetry, and gestures having similar or complimentary movements were considered rhyming, which I guess also makes intuitive sense.
Along the same lines, do deaf people compose poems in ASL? What aspect of that language plays the part of rhyme?
I seem to recall that there are rhymes in ASL, where signs for two things have similar motions/shapes/speeds.
It’s true. My sign name is the letter J, for my first name, but one moves the little finger in a circle up by the side of the head, like “Crazy J.” That stuff gets used all the time, but is not always as obvious to non-signing people.
I learned a tiny bit of ASL in college from hanging out with a few deaf people, then some more when we had kids and bought a bunch of kids’ sign language DVDs. Little kids are able to do some signing earlier than they’re able to manage speech, and I know that helped our kids to communicate when they were super young.
(You know all this, but I felt like saying it for the passers-by.) I know that a mistake hearing people often make is thinking that sign language is just a word-for-word substitution for whatever spoken language is primary where you live. It’s really a different language, grammar and all, definitely including those “combination” signs you’re talking about.
Baby signing is a really useful thing to have evolved from all this, as you are correct that young one’s can think in words much earlier than their vocal systems come on line. We’re such a weird species, to be born in such an under developed state, which development takes years, or a whole lifetime to complete. :-D
This was such a helpful little example, thank you! Like a peek into another world.
Treat my answer as what it is - hearsay - but the way I remember reading about it being explained, there is indeed sign-language poetry, and gestures having similar or complimentary movements were considered rhyming, which I guess also makes intuitive sense.
Yep, and there is sign language poetry in lots of different sign languages!
It’s a beautiful and unique artform IMO
What is ballet, if not poetry for the deaf?