The fastest way to do that is to look at "symbol frequency" in any of the SignPuddles. This would give you the current research on the minimal pairs of a language. For example, one of the earlier publications of LIBRAS had determined a certain number of handshapes (around 96), then people began putting in the variants from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande de Sul and the number expanded. Each day we've gotten a few more handshapes. When I was there in 2000, there were two handshapes, for example, using the ring finger and the thumb in contact, "droga" and "noiva", which depend on where the thumb is placed.From: MARIA GALEA <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 11:34 PM
Subject: An alphabet for a specific sign language from the ISWA 2010
Dear all,
Me again with one more question..
Has anyone out there studied the alphabet of his/her sign language- that
is has anyone derived a smaller amount of symbols from the ISWA 2010, as
the significant symbols (an alphabet) for writing a specific language e.g.
ASL, BSL, Norwegian Sign Language, German sign language etc?
If you know of any such work could you direct me to it please.
If you have carried it out would love to include and refer to your work in
my dissertation.
Once again I truly appreciate ANY feedback whatsoever,
Thanks
Maria
