SignWriting
| Signwriting | |
|---|---|
| Script type | |
| Direction | Vertical left-to-right  |
| Languages | American Sign Language, many others |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Sgnw (095), SignWriting |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | SignWriting |
Sign Writing is a system of writing the movements and handshapes of sign languages. It was developed in 1974 by Valerie Sutton, a dancer who had two years earlier developed DanceWriting.
As Sutton was teaching DanceWriting to the Royal Danish Ballet, Lars von der Lieth, who was doing research on sign language at the University of Copenhagen, thought it would be useful to use a similar notation for the recording of sign languages. Sutton based SignWriting on DanceWriting, and finally expanded the system to the complete repertoire of MovementWriting. However, only SignWriting and DanceWriting have been widely used.
Basic Principles
In SignWriting, a combination of symbols for handshapes, body locations, facial expressions, contacts, and movements are used to describe a motion in sign language.
Over 200 symbols represent handshapes. For example, a fist uses a square. The open hand is represented by a pentagon shaped like a triangle over a rectangle. Fingers extended from the hand are shown with lines drawn attached to the handshape. The back of the hand is drawn in black, and the palm in white. The coloring of the hand allows the diagram to indicate the orientation of the palm. Each handshape has six palm orientations, three in each of the vertical (wall) and horizontal (floor) planes, and multiple rotations. Handshapes that are solid and unbroken are in the wall plane; handshapes with a white line through the area where the knuckles would be are in the floor plane.
Arrows are used to indicate movement. As with handshapes, arrows change to indicate in which plane movement is happening, as well as which hand is doing the moving. The right hand is shown with a solid black arrow head, and the left with a white arrow head. Movements in which both hands follow an overlapping path are shown with a simple line arrowhead. The arrow stem changes to show the vertical and horizontal planes. Arrows with double lines are in the vertical plane. Arrows with single lines are in the horizontal plane. Movement arrows include straight, curved, circular, wrist movement, rotational movement, diagonal movement and shaking movements. Additional movement symbols represent the opening and closing of fingers. A dot represents movement at the middle joint of a finger or fingers, black for closing the joint, and white for opening. A chevron shows movement at the joint where the fingers connect to the palm, pointing down for closing and up for opening.
Contact symbols show body contact: an asterisk or star for a simple touch; a circle with a dot inside for a brush; a spiral for a rub, a pound sign for a strike; and a plus sign for a grasp. Two lines on either side of one of the contact symbols indicates that the contact happens between something; usually between fingers, or inside a circular handshape.
Additional symbols are used to represent body parts other than the hands. A circle shows the head. There are symbols to represent facial movements that are used in various signed languages, including eyes, eyebrows, nose movements, cheeks, mouth movements, and breathing changes. The direction of head movement and eyegaze can also be shown. Shoulders are shown with a horizontal line. Small arrows can be added to show shoulder and torso movement. Arms and even legs can be added if necessary. There are also symbols that indicate speed of movement, whether movement is simultaneous or alternating, and punctuation.
By combining various symbols, signs can be written. A person who has learned this system can "feel out" unfamiliar signs in the same way an English speaking person can "sound out" unfamiliar words written in the Roman Alphabet.
Signs are written in vertical columns. Within a column, signs may be written down the center or to either side. These are referred to as 'lanes,' and are used to indicate role shifting and body movement. 
See also
External links
On SignWriting
- SignWriting
- SignWriting software Java programming language, DOS, Microsoft Windows.
- SignWriting Markup Language (SWML) XML and SVG
- Dictionary of the Flemish Sign Language (uses SignWriting)
- SignWriting Lessons (online version of published book)
- SignBank Online software to write in SignWriting
- SignPuddle Online dictionaries and Literature repositories in multiple Sign Languages
- Children's Literature in SignWriting
Other links
- The Hamburg Sign Language Notation System (HamNoSys)
- Sign Language IPA (SLIPA)
- The MUSSLAP Project Multimodal Human Speech and Sign Language Processing for Human-Machine Communication.Template:ISO 15924/footer