Orientation (sign language)

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A sign language interpreter at a presentation. The hands are facing each other in orientation: one is palm-up, the other palm-down. Sign language interpreter.jpg
A sign language interpreter at a presentation. The hands are facing each other in orientation: one is palm-up, the other palm-down.

In sign languages, orientation (ORI) is the distinctive relative degree of rotation of the hand when signing. Orientation is one of five components of a sign, along with handshape (DEZ), location (TAB), movement (SIG), and nonmanual features.

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American Sign Language Sign language used predominately in the United States

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

Sutton SignWriting, or simply SignWriting, is a system of writing sign languages. It is highly featural and visually iconic, both in the shapes of the characters, which are abstract pictures of the hands, face, and body, and in their spatial arrangement on the page, which does not follow a sequential order like the letters that make up written English words. It was developed in 1974 by Valerie Sutton, a dancer who had, two years earlier, developed DanceWriting. Some newer standardized forms are known as the International Sign Writing Alphabet (ISWA).

A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract, as opposed to a sign language, which is produced with the hands and face.

Orientation may refer to:

The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language.

German Sign Language Sign language predominantly used in Germany

German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS), is the sign language of the deaf community in Germany, Luxembourg and in the German-speaking community of Belgium. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Gallaudet University estimated 50,000 as of 1986. The language has evolved through use in deaf communities over hundreds of years.

Icelandic Sign Language is the sign language of the deaf community in Iceland. It is based on Danish Sign Language; until 1910, deaf Icelandic people were sent to school in Denmark, but the languages have diverged since then. It is officially recognized by the state and regulated by a national committee.

The Korean manual alphabet is used by the Deaf in South Korea who speak Korean Sign Language. It is a one-handed alphabet that mimics the shapes of the letters in Hangul, and is used when signing Korean as well as being integrated into KSL.

Stokoe notation Phonemic script for sign languages

Stokoe notation is the first phonemic script used for sign languages. It was created by William Stokoe for American Sign Language (ASL), with Latin letters and numerals used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to transcribe the position, movement, and orientation of the hands. It was first published as the organizing principle of Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf (1960), and later also used in A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, by Stokoe et al. (1965). In the 1965 dictionary, signs are themselves arranged alphabetically, according to their Stokoe transcription, rather than being ordered by their English glosses as in other sign-language dictionaries. This made it the only ASL dictionary where the reader could look up a sign without first knowing how to translate it into English. The Stokoe notation was later adapted to British Sign Language (BSL) in Kyle et al. (1985) and to Australian Aboriginal sign languages in Kendon (1988). In each case the researchers modified the alphabet to accommodate phonemes not found in ASL.

Plains Indian Sign Language Once the lingua franca across North America

Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Plains Sign Talk, Plains Sign Language and First Nation Sign Language, is a trade language, formerly trade pidgin, that was once the lingua franca across what is now central Canada, the central and western United States and northern Mexico, used among the various Plains Nations. It was also used for story-telling, oratory, various ceremonies, and by deaf people for ordinary daily use. It is thought by some to be a manually coded language or languages; however, there is not substantive evidence establishing a connection between any spoken language and Plains Sign Talk.

In sign languages, handshape, or dez, refers to the distinctive configurations that the hands take as they are used to form words. In Stokoe terminology it is known as the DEZ, an abbreviation of designator. Handshape is one of five components of a sign, along with location, orientation, movement, and nonmanual features. Different sign languages make use of different handshapes.

Hausa Sign Language (HSL) or Maganar Hannu is the indigenous sign language of the Deaf community in northern Nigeria.

Swedish Sign Language Official sign language of Sweden

Swedish Sign Language is the sign language used in Sweden. It is recognized by the Swedish government as the country's official sign language, and hearing parents of deaf individuals are entitled to access state-sponsored classes that facilitate their learning of SSL. There are fewer than 10,000 speakers, making the language officially endangered.

si5s is a writing system for American Sign Language that resembles a handwritten form of SignWriting. It was devised in 2003 in New York City by Robert Arnold, with an unnamed collaborator. In July 2010 at the Deaf Nation World Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was presented and formally announced to the public. Soon after its release, si5s development split into two branches: the "official" si5s track monitored by Arnold and a new set of partners at ASLized, and the "open source" ASLwrite. In 2015, Arnold had a falling out with his ASLized partners, took down the si5s.org website, and made his Twitter account private. ASLized has since removed any mention of si5s from their website.

In sign languages, location, or tab, refers to specific places that the hands occupy as they are used to form signs. In Stokoe terminology it is known as the TAB, an abbreviation of tabula. Location is one of five components, or parameters, of a sign, along with handshape, orientation, movement, and nonmanual features. A particular specification of a location, such as the chest or the temple of the head, can be considered a phoneme. Different sign languages can make use of different locations. In other words, different sign languages can have different inventories of location phonemes.

In sign languages, movement, or sig, refers to the distinctive hand actions that form words. In William Stokoe's terminology, it is the SIG, an abbreviation of signation. Movement is one of five components of a sign—with handshape, orientation, location, and nonmanual features. Different sign languages use different types of movement. Some treatments distinguish movement and hold—signs, or parts of signs, that involve motion vs. those that hold the hands still.

Expression (sign language)

In sign languages, expressions are the distinctive body postures and facial expressions that accompany signing, and which are necessary to properly form words. Expression is one of five components of a sign, along with handshape, orientation, location, and movement. A major component of expression is mouthing. However, not all signs have an inherent expression.

Sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) are characterized by phonological processes analogous to, yet dissimilar from, those of oral languages. Although there is a qualitative difference from oral languages in that sign-language phonemes are not based on sound, and are spatial in addition to being temporal, they fulfill the same role as phonemes in oral languages.

Cuban Sign Language

Cuban Sign Language, is the language used by the Deaf community in Cuba. There are approximately 19,000 users of the language. Cuban Sign Language is an important part of the culture of the Deaf community in Cuba.

Signalong is an alternative and augmentative key-word signing communication method used by those individuals with a speech, language and communication need. The Signalong methodology has been effectively used with individuals who have cognitive impairments, autism, Down's Syndrome, specific language impairment, multisensory impairment and acquired neurological disorders that have negatively affected the ability to communicate, including stroke patients and English as an additional language.

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