Why so many signing systems?

Don't know there are many synonyms for words in English, I am (might be wrong) under the impression that different signs have different connotations.

I was told that two of the signs for run mean different things one connotative of "quickly/walk fast", the other was more like "hurry/coward" is this true?
 
rockdrummer said:
Does anyone know if ASL is still evolving and adding new signs or has it been pretty much static?
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You bet! There are some signs I don't remember seeing when I was a child like the ILY sign. Sometimes I pick up a sign if I thought it make a good sense. Also there are some signs that are local (just like dialect) only in a school or a town/city.
 
Buffalo said:
You bet! There are some signs I don't remember seeing when I was a child like the ILY sign. Sometimes I pick up a sign if I thought it make a good sense. Also there are some signs that are local (just like dialect) only in a school or a town/city.
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Thanks Buffalo. Is there an official place to go (books etc) to find out or do we relay on the online dictionaries for the answer.
 
So, have you seen anyone use Rochester Method? I do. Just one... I flip out just a second after I saw it.
 
rockdrummer said:
Isn't that the one where everything is fingerspelled?
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yes that's OLD rochester method used to be fingerspelling.
thank god I wasn't in rochester years ago. My old teacher who graduated from rochester long time ago and he gave us hard times in the classroom when he was really MAD when he fingerspelled to us. :giggle:
 
PowerON said:
So, have you seen anyone use Rochester Method? I do. Just one... I flip out just a second after I saw it.
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The first Deaf person I met communicated in the Rochester system since that was the method used at the Manitoba School for the Deaf in the 1930s or '40s. My family flipped out. It wasn't cumbersome for that lady and her husband since they would abbreviate everything.
 
souggy said:
The first Deaf person I met communicated in the Rochester system since that was the method used at the Manitoba School for the Deaf in the 1930s or '40s. My family flipped out. It wasn't cumbersome for that lady and her husband since they would abbreviate everything.
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:laugh2: You have to if you intend on keeping your fingers.
 
It's called "Talk to the Deaf" by Lottie Riekehof (published in 1963) . most of it is recognizable, but some of it seem alittle different than the book called "joy of signing" (my sister got that book when she worked at camp easter seal)

I would give you my copy but this was used by my grandma's sister and was given to me by my grandma, so it is kinda sentimental to me.
 
Waxy said:
all languages are dynamic, non static and constantly evolving and adapting.
either oral ones or signed ones
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Agreed!. I can go to a current dictionary to get the latest on the English Language. Where can I go to get the latest on ASL?
 
There are many websites like ASLPro:

ASLPro.com Home

As far as dictionaries, there are many publishers... like Gallaudet Press, TJ Publishers and so onand they do update their stuff from time to time-- just like any other publisher.

Now if you are expecting a yearly publication-- there is a problem with that. English dictionaries are published every year because it is absorbing new words at a pace that is incomparable to other languages-- Standard Chinese and Kanji are probably the closest that can match English.

Many people who specialize in the study of English have a library of different published dictionaries from different time periods. No different than ASL.

I use [ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Sign-Language-Dictionary-Unabridged/dp/0062716085/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253045415&sr=1-3]Amazon.com: American Sign Language Dictionary Unabridged (9780062716088): Martin L. Sternberg: Books[/ame]
and

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Canadian-Dictionary-ASL-Carole-Bailey/dp/0888643004/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253045321&sr=1-6]Amazon.com: The Canadian Dictionary of ASL (9780888643001): Carole Sue Bailey, Kathy Dolby, Charmaine Letourneau C.M.: Books[/ame]


I also pick up supplementary materials that come from Gallaudet, TJ Publishers, Random House and few others.

I got a chance to see an interpreter's personal collection once, and it was a 8' tall 4' wide bookshelf that was just riped with DVDs. The amount of printed materials she have, which were anywhere from 1923 to 2007 were just scary.
 
souggy said:
...I got a chance to see an interpreter's personal collection once, and it was a 8' tall 4' wide bookshelf that was just riped with DVDs. The amount of printed materials she have, which were anywhere from 1923 to 2007 were just scary.
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Yep, standard collection for terps. :P
 
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