Phonology of a gripping language, pt 1

Part 1 describing a grip-based language that Alex Fink and I are creating

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• saizai
• conlang
• grip
• language
• phonology

[nikamirovak]

This is great! My wife hates signing because it's too much motion for her and I'm deafblind. I'm going to look into this as a way for us to communicate!

[saizai]

P.S. I think ASL (or another real sign language) would probably be better for you. Those are actually developed, you can find interpreters easily, etc. I don't know what issue your wife has with it being "too much motion"; to me that's a strange problem to have unless she has some sort of really severe arthritis, and there are certainly ways you can make ASL work with reduced motion anyway

[faunflynn]

This is , in form, like the fictional battle languages in Dune. It also resembles the hidden form of LAadan in Native tongue by S Haden Elgin.

Cool stuff.

[nikamirovak]

hmm, for jargon? i only know of one that gives a lot of religious jargon, but for linguistics terminology i don't even know how standardized the signs are. i have another deafblind linguist friend and she said she and her interpreter had to agree on a lot of the signs, but at the same time gallaudet is top in the linguistics of signed/manual languages, so i imagine they have some sort of vocabulary. sorry i can't help you more.

[saizai]

I'm decently fluent in ASL - I just don't know jargon. So yes, I know P. :-P

Know any dictionaries / sites that have a good list?

[nikamirovak]

Are you familiar with the P handshape? It's hard to describe, but if you look up any video on YouTube of the ASL alphabet, you can find it. Take that handshape and point it inside your ear for the sound-based definition, and on your temple for the sound-independent definition.

[nikamirovak]

Oh, I use ASL all the time. The thing is my wife is on the autism spectrum so skin gliding on skin is like nails on a chalkboard to her, and since I'm deafblind, I have to use ASL tactually. So the gripping language just might be our solution since there's no friction involved.

[saizai]

What're the signs? I don't know any linguistics jargon in ASL.

[nikamirovak]

The original meaning of it being sound-related is based on when the field of linguistics hadn't yet realized that language can be independent of sound. If it makes you feel any better, ASL has two signs for "phonology" -- one which has the more specific "sound-based" meaning and the other one which has the more general meaning.

[saizai]

O.o How'd you manage to watch this then?

If you do try this out, please email us. We'd be interested to know how it goes.