SignWriting (was: Re: NEW-INSERT LANGUAGE SUBTAG MODIFICATION for
"Sgnw")
Doug Ewell
dewell at adelphia.net
Sun Oct 15 07:28:25 CEST 2006
Mark Davis wrote:
> Could we see a bit more of a description of what Sgnw is supposed to
> be? That is, is
>
> en-Sgnw
>
> supposed to be signed English? And if so, with what system?
SignWriting is a notation system for sign languages. It describes the
hand gestures and eyebrow raises and everything else that constitutes
sign language.
So in the RFC 4646bis era, you might write "sgn-ase-Sgnw" to indicate
American Sign Language written in SignWriting.
The Wikipedia article on "SignWriting" includes an example of Flemish
Sign Language written in SignWriting.
DIGRESSION: The Wikipedia page on "Flemish Sign Language" gives an ISO
639-2 code element of "sgn-BE-VLG", which not only is not a real ISO
code element but doesn't even appear on Michael's sign language page; he
gives "sgn-BE-nl" for "Belgian-Flemish Sign Language" instead. (Note
that "VLG" is the ISO 3166-2 code element for "Vlaamse Gewest", or
Flanders.) It also states that Flemish Sign Language was "previously
known as Belgian Sign Language," which raises two questions: (1) should
"sgn-BE-nl" be deprecated in the RFC 4646bis era and given a
Preferred-Value of "sgn-bvs", and (2) what happened to Michael's
"Belgian-French Sign Language," coded as "sgn-BE-fr"?
We still haven't reached any agreement on how to tag signed spoken
languages. Michael proposed to use "sgn" plus an ISO 639-2/B alpha-3
language code element, plus an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
element -- thus, "sgn-eng-US" for signed American English. Presumably
"sgn-eng" could be used for signed English, country not specified,
although I don't know if that has any meaning in the world of signed
spoken languages.
--
Doug Ewell * Fullerton, California, USA * RFC 4645 * UTN #14
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
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