Originally Posted by Buffalo

I came up with the 'regional sign' because it is the best words I can think of. Do you have a better word(s) for my 'regional sign'?? Regional accent had to do with the way a hearing person said the word so why not regional sign for the way a Deaf person sign the word?

The interpreter would use the locally signs. The deaf person who move to the new place is going to have to learn the local signs fast. I have done that myself when I moved. Hey - hearing people do have trouble understanding the accent from elsewhere like the southern accent. If the southern accent is real bad, I have a very hard time understanding that person.

Originally Posted by Anij

Here's my take on sign variants (regional signs etc) meaning multiple signs for a single gloss meaning.

I think we sometimes thing of variation as a bad thing ... ASL students certainly seem overwhelmed - but actually it's a really GOOD thing. It's a sign that ASL is alive and well ... that it's growing and maturing naturally as a language.

Before people were able to travel around as easily or communicate across wide areas (video phone etc) ASL (as with all languages who develop in semi-isolation) was much more regionalised, as new words were needed ( for technology etc) the local group came up with a sign... used it, accepted it, but was aware that it would be regional.

As the ASL community has become more "North American" individually we're exposed to more regional signed because people travel around more - there's the internet and video phone ... we "see" more differences in our language than we had in the past.

Within Canada there are at least 4 "regions" for Sign - within these there are regional variants because they draw from different historical sign languages ... ASL, LSQ, LSF, BSL etc. because of that we see different signs for things like "OFFICE" or "HOSPITAL" - however theres something interesting that happens as well ... as we interact with the regions sometimes a preference for a sign is found (4 sign choices, becomes 1) ...

It's kind of like when the Canadian $2bill was replaced with a coin ... at first the new coin had many different (spoken, not signed) names "twoonie","toonie","bearback","duece""doub-loon","two-piece" etc ... but with usage we came to call it a "toonie" ... the regional wording because national.

Anyways ... as the North American ASL community continues to mature, we see more continuity - it happens naturally as we see and adopt ASL knowledge from various Schools (Def schools, Colleges etc) as well as Coastal differences, and even Ethnic variations (we see this happen with country and state/city signs too). There used to be a million different signs for "email" (I still fingerspell it, but I'm not the "norm") ... but through usage we see more standardization now.

Now all that being said - regionalization can be frustrating ( just like in english ... is it a shopping cart, a buggy, a trolly, a cart, a pushcart? and ALL those are just in the USA) but I always smile when I see the regional signs ... it shows that we're growing ... that ASL is developing in a natural, healthy way - and THAT is a wonderful thing to see !!!

P.S. just to add an odd personal quirk into the mix ... I sign birthday as "BORN+DAY" except if I only have one hand free ( usually due to holding cake, soda etc while signing happy birthday) If I only have one had free I flip to the birthday sign that starts like "FAVORITE" ~ no real reason other than it's more suited to single handed signing ... LOL

Originally Posted by Etoile

There most certainly are accents in ASL. Just about every feature of a spoken language is also present in ASL. While I agree with you that word choice does not mean an accent, that doesn't mean ASL signers don't have accents. Instead of the spoken English accent meaning the sounds you make when speaking, it is the ASL accent meaning the movements you make when signing. A southern drawl means sounds are drawn out, right? Well, some people might sign more slowly, or with a certain looseness, etc. Don't let your beliefs about spoken language (which is made from sounds) color your beliefs about visual language (which is made from movements) - they are still languages.

Not really...how about this?

You can call it soda, pop, cola, co-cola, coke...that's at least five words for an English concept too.
I am a VRS interpreter, so I work with people from around the United States every day. Sometimes I have to ask for clarification. It's not that big a deal. Nobody "created" sign language, so it's not "logical" - it's evolved the way all languages evolved. There are certainly many illogical things about English; why do we say "He ran to the store" instead of "He runned to the store?" It's just the way English is, we have weird things. So does ASL.

Originally Posted by Anij

Here's my take on sign variants (regional signs etc) meaning multiple signs for a single gloss meaning.

I think we sometimes thing of variation as a bad thing ... ASL students certainly seem overwhelmed - but actually it's a really GOOD thing. It's a sign that ASL is alive and well ... that it's growing and maturing naturally as a language.

Before people were able to travel around as easily or communicate across wide areas (video phone etc) ASL (as with all languages who develop in semi-isolation) was much more regionalised, as new words were needed ( for technology etc) the local group came up with a sign... used it, accepted it, but was aware that it would be regional.

As the ASL community has become more "North American" individually we're exposed to more regional signed because people travel around more - there's the internet and video phone ... we "see" more differences in our language than we had in the past.

Within Canada there are at least 4 "regions" for Sign - within these there are regional variants because they draw from different historical sign languages ... ASL, LSQ, LSF, BSL etc. because of that we see different signs for things like "OFFICE" or "HOSPITAL" - however theres something interesting that happens as well ... as we interact with the regions sometimes a preference for a sign is found (4 sign choices, becomes 1) ...

It's kind of like when the Canadian $2bill was replaced with a coin ... at first the new coin had many different (spoken, not signed) names "twoonie","toonie","bearback","duece""doub-loon","two-piece" etc ... but with usage we came to call it a "toonie" ... the regional wording because national.

Anyways ... as the North American ASL community continues to mature, we see more continuity - it happens naturally as we see and adopt ASL knowledge from various Schools (Def schools, Colleges etc) as well as Coastal differences, and even Ethnic variations (we see this happen with country and state/city signs too). There used to be a million different signs for "email" (I still fingerspell it, but I'm not the "norm") ... but through usage we see more standardization now.

Now all that being said - regionalization can be frustrating ( just like in english ... is it a shopping cart, a buggy, a trolly, a cart, a pushcart? and ALL those are just in the USA) but I always smile when I see the regional signs ... it shows that we're growing ... that ASL is developing in a natural, healthy way - and THAT is a wonderful thing to see !!!

P.S. just to add an odd personal quirk into the mix ... I sign birthday as "BORN+DAY" except if I only have one hand free ( usually due to holding cake, soda etc while signing happy birthday) If I only have one had free I flip to the birthday sign that starts like "FAVORITE" ~ no real reason other than it's more suited to single handed signing ... LOL

Originally Posted by deafskeptic

Here's another example - the signs for accident. I know two signs for it and I will use either one of them depending on the context. If I hear a horrific car crash just outside my apt, I will use this sign that uses two thumbs up and fists and then bring together both fists and hit them..

Now if I were to try to reach up to the dish in my self and as I strain to get the dish, I knock it off the shelf and it fell and broke, I'd use this sign that has four fingers together and thumb extended and then slide my hand past my mouth and along my jaw and say Opps that was a accident. I didn't mean to break it.

I remember once a dad who is Deaf (whole family is Deaf) and he showed me how the family signed porch. His daugther just fingerspelled porch while mom signed porch with a bent letter v and moved it from wrist to elbow. Dad signed it in the reverse. I found that very interesting I'm a sucker for anything that's language related.

It's like how hearing pronounce words.. For example, my little sister pronouces the word yeah this way: yeh? My great aunts would pronounce it this way: Yee-aah? So do I. My mother just says yes.

Originally Posted by Anij

P.S. sorry for the typos in my post you guys ... way to much studying - I think my brain's fried lol

Originally Posted by VamPyroX

Hmm... since you brought up "typos":

I wonder what they should call it when people make a signing mistake?

You type up something and make a mistake. So, it's a TYPE-O... typo.

You sign something and make a mistake. That would be a SIGN-O. So, should we call it a signo?

Originally Posted by AquaBlue

A regional sign (word) is not the same as a regional accent. They are two different things. A word (sign or not) is not equal to an accent (a sound).

Five different signs for early...that's crazy.

Maybe Costello should produce separate dictionaries: one per region. Or at least have websites (like ASLPro or ASL Browser) that do the same thing. And if I may be blunt, having different signs per region is not logical because it only brings confusion to the singer(s). What if an Interpreter had to do his/her duty with two folks from different regions. He/she would have to adjust to cater to each person's known signs. That's nuts.

Originally Posted by VamPyroX

That first sign you mentioned for "accident"... it's also the sign for "challenge".

I've seen some people misunderstand that sign. "What happened?" "Oh, he was challenged in a contest." Later, that person will ask me... "I don't understand why people have bad grammar. That guy told me... 'He was accident in a contest.' I don't get it."

Originally Posted by Anij

Have you seen the ASL story based on the different ways to sign the english "run" it's awesome ... I can't remember how it goes, but I think there's somewhere between 8-12 different ASL signs for the english "run"

Originally Posted by EyesBlueDeaf

50 ASL signs / 28 English word
http://www.acdhh.org/documents/Compa...igner.terp.pdf