SignWriting List
December 31, 2010

Hello Stefan and everyone!
What wonderful illustrations, Stefan..thank you! And you make a good point that adding the arm line would give more detail as to the palm direction for the circle-hand-symbol...it does depend on who you are writing the card for...and as you say, in this case people will understand the message with a simple writing...

In the past few years here in our organization, we have been creating really large books...as you know the Gospel According to John is over 470 numbered pages, and all of the pages are in written ASL...and through this experience we started trying to write in a more simplified manner, including taking out contact symbols when the sign could be understood without them, and little things, like the arm lines, could be taken out because the finishing position in these signs gives us the "probable information" to be able to read the sign - you are right that without the finishing position, there would be no way to know what the palm direction was on the circle-hand symbol, so then the arm line would be necessary for foreign readers -

It is fun to be discussing SignSpellings - 2011 will be a productive and fascinating year - major accomplishments from all of us - I can just feel the energy and optimism -

Thank you for 2010 everyone - I am looking forward to completing and posting our SignWriting Year End Report for 2010, which will document some of the SignWriting projects around the world...

I will be back on the List on January 2nd...

Happy 2011 everyone!

Val ;-)


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On Dec 31, 2010, at 3:46 AM, Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:

> Hi Eda, Valerie, Charles – sw-friends,
>  
> Wow – what an interesting spelling discussion on the last day of this year.
>  
> First of all – Eda – I like your Adobe Illustrator SW-style very much. Really art – work.
>  
> I could read your card – even though I hesitate to understand the spelling of “novo” on your first card.
>  
> The problem is the result of this symbol O-hand – graphem. There is no hint about fingers or thumb – so the orientation of the hand  is not clear. (Same problem with the closed fist – graphem  - ;-(
>  
> So there are many orientations possible if we look at this “circle”.
>  
> I created two little graphics to explain this -
>  
> I would not worry about the spelling in this case. Once the reader is informed that you express new year wishes – it should be ok.
>  
> So in this case I would agree with Valerie to keep the spelling as simple as possible.
>  
>  
> All the best
>  
> Stefan