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American Sign Language: Phonetics and Phonology, Slides of Sign Language

An overview of American Sign Language (ASL), including its general characteristics, relationship to other sign languages, and phonetic dimensions. It covers topics such as sign language families, iconicity, and phonetic parameters like handshape, location, movement, and orientation. The document also discusses minimal pairs and near-minimal pairs for various parameters, as well as non-manual expressions and sign language transcription.

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2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/27/2022

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American Sign Language
Phonetics and Phonology
LING 200
Spring 2006
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American Sign Language

Phonetics and Phonology

LING 200Spring 2006

Overview

  • Sign languages: general characteristics• American Sign Language and other sign

languages

  • Iconicity vs. arbitrariness• Phonetic dimensions of ASL• Iconicity vs. phonology

What is a sign?

•^

Sign in sign languages

word in spoken languages

-^

Traditionally, signs arereferred to (in English) bytranslation (gloss) of sign

-^

Translation conventionallygiven in capital letters– CAT

American Sign Language

  • The preferred language of the Deaf

community of the US and Canada– deaf vs. Deaf

  • Has dialects
    • rural south ASL is most divergent
      • Usually learned from
        • peers at residential schools– adult members of the Deaf community

Sign language families

•^

Signed languages are not signed versions ofspoken languages

-^

The sign language of an area does not belong tothe same family of languages as the spokenlanguage of that area

-^

Signed languages can be grouped into historicalfamilies

-^

Families of spoken languages

families of sign

languages

American Sign Language and related

languages

Old Kentish SL MVSL

Old ASL

Old French Sign Language

ASL

French SL

ROISL

Span SL

NGT

QSL

ASL = American Sign LanguageMVSL = Martha’s Vineyard Sign LanguageNGT = Dutch Sign LanguageROISL = Republic of Ireland Sign LanguageQSL = Quebec Sign LanguageOld French SL: attested 300 years ago

Iconicity in spoken language

•^

Sound

meaning

  • arbitrary, non-iconic– [h

r] ā€˜hair’ vs. ā€˜hare’

•^

Onomatopoeia (sound imitating environment)– to neigh, meow, mew, bark, woof, moo, oink, etc.– But cross-linguistic differences:

  • [b

rk] ā€˜bark’

  • Tsek’ene [y

ht

hic

], Witsuwit’en [y

ļ‚«ts

h

] ā€˜it’s barking’

Iconicity in signed languagesIs sign language pantomime?

Historically iconic signs

MILK

COFFEE

Differences between

sign languages•

TREE in ASL vs.Chinese SL

-^

BREAD in ASL vs.French SL

Phonetic dimensions of ASL

•^

Parameters–

handshape

-^

location

-^

movement

-^

orientation

-^

number of hands

-^

non-manual expression

•^

Values of parameters realized simultaneously

-^

In some signs, a parameter may have two or morevalues (sequenced)

One- vs. two-handed signs

  • Some signs articulated with one hand only
    • strong or dominant hand
      • Some signs articulated with two hands
        • weak or non-dominant hand is restricted

Handshape

MOTHER(5 hand)

BOY (2 variants)

Signs which change handshape

UNDERSTAND HOW MANY?

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm

DIVORCED