Re: Writing Sign Languages


izzy wrote:
12:00 midday = Hi, Noon

Somewhat off-topic.

I have a hunch that hunter-gatherer societies used sign language long
before there were any written languages. Sign language would enable a
group of hunters to communicate without revealing the location of each
member to their prey.

Early written languages may have created shapes for each letter based
on already existing hand shapes and actions used to represent that
letter's sound.

What say you, Peter, Noon ?

If the widely held theory that gesture language preceded vocal language
is correct, there are (at least) several tens of thousands of years
between them and the beginnings of writing.

If Sumerian hunters used gestures for coordinating a hunt (but what,
praytell, would they be hunting, and what would they be hiding
behind?), they would be relatively simple gestures of come and go, stay
and attack, etc., not a complex system of signed language like ASL or
any other signed language.

Why would a signed language have used gestures to "represent ... sound"?

.

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