Sign languages

[Doug Ewell]

Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft dot com> wrote:

> Frankly, it seems to me that a need to take some time working out a
> scheme arises only when we've got a hair-brained scheme that tries to
> use country subtags in some cases and (necessarily) not in others. If
> we just use treat signed languages like any other normal language
> using tags like "ads", or if we agree on a consistent template using
> alpha-3 extlang subtags e.g. "sgn-ads", then there's nothing to be
> worked out as far as the tagging scheme is concerned; the only open
> issue is identifying what are all the distinct signed languages out
> there.

Let me paraphrase this into a question:  In what way are sign languages 
different from other languages that requires them to be coded using a 
completely different model?

--
Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California, USA
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/