Sign languages

[Kent Karlsson]

John Cowan wrote:
> A letter-spelled word has the status of a borrowing, just like

It's not quite the same thing as borrowed words. The lettering signs
would 'spell' the word (pssbly w/ srtcts) in the same language as
the users would use for writing, irrespective of what signs are
used otherwise. Actually I don't at all see any relationship with
this situation and that of borrowed words in spoken/written languages.
At least not to the degree that they should be treated the same.
It is really a case of two languages being merged, even though
certain combinations are more likely than others.

     /kent k