Around the World in 50 Minutes: Understanding How Country Signs are Created and Used in American Sign Language

Presentation to 2018 Utah Valley University Spring Silent Weekend about how country/geographical signs are created, altered, and used in American Sign Language (ASL).

Based on research in 2010 Deaf Studies Today! presentation about historic semantic creation in geographic ASL signs. (This presentation is an updated version of 2013 presentation of the same name.)

Transcript

1. 2018 UVU SILENT WEEKEND Around the World
 in 50 Minutes Understanding How Country Signs are Created and Used Doug Stringham, MS, UT QAIII | Utah Valley University ©2018 Doug Stringham. An Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/
 licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) covers all pages in this work; this license does not apply, however, to work claimed by other authors and producers.
2. What are we doing today?
3. • Learn about and understand where ASL country signs come from and how they evolve • Understand how Deaf communities 
 use and identify themselves with certain country signs
4. • Visualize a proposed framework for country sign creation/validation • Learn several indigenous country signs
5. You’re a nerd, you know that? So, where did this information come from?
6. Analysis of country signs in 17 sign language dictionaries printed between 1909 and 2005.
7. That’s way nerdy, nerd-dude. Country politics and signs have always changed.
8. 1910 Pre-WWI Makeup of European States
9. 1945 Post-WWII Makeup of European States That happened in only thirty-five years.
10. Long (1909/18) The Sign Language: 
 A Manual of Signs
11. Long (1909) SCOTLAND. Bring the “5” hands up in front, palms toward self, the palm of the right hand resting against the back of the left in such a way that the fingers of both hands cross at an angle representing an “X;” let the hands drop away toward the sides. Note that the fingers when thus held represent the plaid.
12. Long (1918) SCOTLAND. Bring the “5” hands up in front, palms toward self, the palm of the right hand resting against the back of the left in such a way that the fingers of both hands cross at an angle representing an “X;” let the hands drop away toward the sides. Note that the fingers when thus held represent the plaid. SCOTLAND. (2) Place back of the extended right hand across the left arm; draw it across and then turning the hand over repeat, representing plaids on arm.
13. Higgins (1923/42) How to Talk to the Deaf; the language of gestures, expression, impersonation, pantomime or acting, used by all people in all ages and everywhere
14. Higgins (1923) SCOTCH: Palms inward, open fingers crossed, hands drawn apart down to sides; or, tips of right prone spread fingers along left sleeve and then across to indicate the plaid.
15. Higgins (1942) SCOTCH: Tips of right prone spread fingers along left sleeve and then across to indicate the plaid.
16. SCOTLAND4 Humphries 1980 Evolution of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND1 Long 1909/18 SCOTLAND2 Higgins 1923/42 SCOTLAND3 Riekehof 1963
17. SCOTLAND7 Valli 2006 Evolution of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND5 Fant 1983 SCOTLAND6 Smith 1989
18. Evolution of MEXICO MEXICO4 Valli 2006 MEXICO3 Stokoe 1965 MEXICO2 Watson 1964 MEXICO1,4 Long 1909, Smith 1989
19. Seriously, you’re a nerd. Great, so what sign am I supposed to use now?
20. Framework for 
 identifying valid & reliable geographic sign variations
21. Robert Palella 2nd ASL Fest, Gallaudet University (2007)
22. What do we see Deaf people doing with “newer” country signs?
23. • Signs are not necessarily changing 
 as a reaction to so-called ‘political correctness’ • Other countries do consider ASL’s use of their indigenous sign as ‘respect;’ fosters a globalism at international conferences and sporting events
24. • Some ASL signs have been as insulting, focused on physical characteristics (examples?) • Signs are being borrowed because signs for a country may not be present in ASL
25. • Reduces the need for fingerspelling • “We already have a sign for a country; 
 why replace it with another (non-ASL, outsider?) sign?”
26. • Spoken languages do not use 
 indigenous names for other countries 
 (do you say ‘Deutschland’ or ‘Germany’; ‘Japan’ or ‘⽇日本’?)
27. vexillogical Sign describes a physical, symbolic, or conceptual characteristic of a nation’s flag
28. Vexillogical country signs (Valli, 2006) Germany1 Austria
29. Vexillogical country signs (Valli, 2006) Guatemala Greece2
30. Vexillogical country signs (Valli, 2006) Lebanon Hong Kong2
31. Vexillogical country signs (Valli, 2006) Switzerland Nicaragua
32. Vexillogical country signs (Valli, 2006) Turkey Thailand
33. Vexillogical country signs (WFD Países-Sinais, 2003) Syria Malta
34. geographical Sign describes a physical, topographic, or geographical characteristic of a nation
35. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006)
36. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006)
37. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006)
38. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Namibia (shape)
39. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Norway (geography)
40. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Italy (shape)
41. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Sri Lanka (shape)
42. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Portugal (shape)
43. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Brazil (shape)
44. Africa (area) Sweden (features) Asia (area) Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Smith 1989
45. Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Japan (shape) Iran (area) Haiti (geography)
46. Philippines (geography) Geographical/country signs (Valli, 2006) Panama (feature) Jamaica (shape)
47. ethnographical Sign describes cultural, personal, or customal characteristics of a nation or people (food, history, arts/music, clothing, animals, personal features, weather, military, transportation, linguistics, behaviors, religion, combinations)
48. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Denmark (transportation)
49. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Trinidad & Tobago (music)
50. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Korea (military)
51. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Malaysia (dance)
52. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Russia (history/politics)
53. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Taiwan2 (food)
54. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Argentina (music) Australia2 (history) Bangladesh
 (clothing)
55. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Belgium1 (history) Bolivia (animal) Bulgaria (personal)
56. Cuba (clothing) Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Canada (weather) alt. ‘maple leaf’ Chile (vegetation)
57. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) China2 (personal) China3 (clothing) Egypt2 (history)
58. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) England1 (personal?) Finland2 (personal?) Germany2 (military)
59. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Greece1 
 (personal/history) Netherlands2 (personal) Holland1 (clothing)
60. Northern/Ireland1 (food) Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Indonesia (animal life) Ireland2 (personal/
 linguistic?)
61. Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) India (religion/personal) Israel1 (personal) Jordan (linguistic)
62. Spain2 (clothing) Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Kenya (music) Palestine (clothing)
63. Yugoslavia
 (history) (dissolved 2003) Ethnographic country signs (Valli, 2006) Saudi Arabia (military) Vietnam2 (animal life)
64. abbreviatory Sign is pronounced by using the initials 
 of the nation’s (English) name (how valid/reliable is this? does it work only for the English name?) Ab
65. Costa Rica Dominican Republic or República Dominicana Abbreviatory country signs (Valli, 2006) Ab ¿Cuál es? Which one is it?
66. Pakistan United States Abbreviatory country signs (Valli, 2006) Ab Puerto Rico
67. El Salvador Abbreviatory country signs (Valli, 2006) Ab Smith 1989 Hong Kong1 New Zealand
68. arbitrary/temporary Sign is pronounced seemingly by 
 none of the previous characteristics (how valid/reliable is this? created in contact/for pidgins?) ?
69. Belize Arbitrary/temporary country signs (Valli, 2006) ? Botswana
70. Belgium2 Arbitrary/temporary country signs (Valli, 2006) ? Colombia Honduras
71. Paraguay Arbitrary/temporary country signs (Valli, 2006) ? Peru
72. Continuing education
73. facebook.com Sign Language of the Deaf World Deaf signers rendering indigenous country and city signs
74. spreadthesign.com Spread the Sign Several indigenous signs for and from multiple countries
75. aslresource.net ASL Resource Several indigenous signs for and from multiple countries
76. intrpr.info/arabicsl Arabic SL
77. spreadthesign.com International signs Deaf signers rendering indigenous country signs in various SL
78. YouTube Countries Sign Language (DeafEyes777) n.d. https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=UXxcsiB6mpY
79. YouTube What is an appropriate sign for China? (John Warren) https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=KqMfcDMtDj0
80. vexillogical Sign describes a physical, symbolic, or conceptual characteristic of a nation’s flag geographical Sign describes a physical, topographic, or geographical characteristic of a nation abbreviatory Sign is pronounced by using the initials 
 of the nation’s (English) name; reliable? valid? Ab arbitrary/ temporary Current sign has anomalous pronunciation; reliable? valid? contact/pidgin? ? Framework for geographic/country signs ethnographical Sign describes cultural, personal, or customal characteristics of a nation or people
81. Thank you. intrpr.info dstringham@gmail.com @stringd