What is ASL notation? What is ASL writing?
An ASL notational system is any way of putting down the information in an ASL text which attempts to preserve some of the ASL form of that text. An ASL writing system is a notational system which represents the linguistic structure and sub-structure of ASL and is capable of writing utterances of any length. Most ASL notation systems are not complete writing systems. Some systems, such as photographs, sketches, computer-generated pictures, or phonemic transcriptions, are able to represent individual signs, but cannot represent 3 dimensional sentence structure or other discourse elements. Others, such as glossing, transcribing, or description, can represent utterances of any length, but do not attempt to represent the structure of individual signs. Many people are interested in writing ASL for a variety of reasons, including linguistic research, Deaf education, ASL instruction, and to preserve and value Deaf culture by writing down stories, poems, scripts, and sign names.
Why is it a hot topic? Why now?
The Deaf community has fought hard for recognition of ASL as a valid language equal to English. Some in the Deaf community feel that continuing to rely on English to represent ASL is a disservice to ASL and perpetuates audist stereotypes about the language. However, others feel that the attempt to write ASL may be misguided as the rules of ASL linguistics are not yet complexity understood, and that attempting to write ASL cannot be successful at this point, or perhaps ever.
In 2012, ASLized decided to partner with Robert Arnold, a Deaf graduate of Gallaudet, and to support the new writing system he had developed, si5s. This new system was symbolic and spacial, able to represent the structure of ASL sentences as well as words, and although it could not be typed, it could be written out quickly on paper. However, Robert Arnold considered the system to be his intellectual property, and an open-source version of the same system began to spread as well, known as ASLwrite.
In 2012, ASLized decided to partner with Robert Arnold, a Deaf graduate of Gallaudet, and to support the new writing system he had developed, si5s. This new system was symbolic and spacial, able to represent the structure of ASL sentences as well as words, and although it could not be typed, it could be written out quickly on paper. However, Robert Arnold considered the system to be his intellectual property, and an open-source version of the same system began to spread as well, known as ASLwrite.
Post by Byron Bridges. |
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