Fasten Your Fuckin’ Seatbelt!

Notedly, the speech patterns and ryhtym of regional speak will be mimicked in sign language. In the case of Vincent, that slow Louisiana drawl he’s been around all his life, that would reflect in his sign. His speed would be slower, and his cadence/mannerisms like eye contact and physical expressionism would match a southern style. Because sign language isn’t just moving hands, the language involves almost the entire body while signing, and so Southern ways of carrying oneself (lazy slouches, head tipped back and high) affects the way he signs. It’s also been recognized that Southern sign users tend to touch their chest and face more than other dialects. This is the sign version of hospitality in a way, like showing sincerity in action.

As for word choice, Southern sign language would be slightly different based on regional speak. For example, in Louisiana, the pop vs soda debate is moot, because they tend to call all pop “Coke.” So Vincent would sign “Coke” instead of “soda.” Louisiana is also notably an area with rich cultural variation and Cajun/French adjacent languages. It’s common for Louisiana families to speak a little bit of French in their every day lives, sorta like how Texans tend to sprinkle in a bit of Spanish now and again. So if the family uses common Louisiana French expressions Vince would pick those up too. But he wouldn’t do FSL, it would still be a regional version of ASL.

Most importantly is how Vince learned sign language. If he had a tutor, read it in a book, or was taught by his parents. The accent and regional dialect of his sign teacher would affect his too. Southerners tend to exclude and slur words, but sign isn’t a literal word to word translation. His equivalent would be quicker motions among the slow drawl, and possibly personalized signs.

So the way sign language works is it has its own grammatical structures and vocabulary. Despite the ability to translate, it’s not a 1-1 match to English. ASL is it’s own separate language, the same way French is or Spanish is! The best way I can think to demonstrate that is a translation.

From French, let’s take a question sentence: “Est-ce que tu sculptes de la cire?” This translates, in English, literally do “Is it that you sculpt the wax?” But that’s not how we’d read it. We know what’s being communicated is “Do you sculpt with wax?” So in sign language, there is equivalent meanings in the same way, without being direct.

Here’s a sentence in ASL:

What these words mean is “Me sculpt paraffin wax.” But again, that very literal translation isn’t how we communicate. The meaning we take is “I sculpt in wax.”

These structures are determined by a series of -Subject- Verb- Object- like the example above. Filler words like “that” “is” “if” “so” and “to” are very rarely used in ASL. So the translations just aren’t the literal same.

As for contractions, these do exist but not in the traditional English sense. English says words like “do not” will be shortened to “don’t.” Sign Language contractions are more like when a person has a name sign. Rather than spelling out a name or a city every single time, a sign language “contraction” is when there’s a word to express or represent something that isn’t necessarily a part of the language, it’s chosen on a personal basis. There’s also signers who will use ‘sound-adjacent’ words, like when introducing himself as Sinclair, instead of spelling it, he could sign “Sink” And “Layer.”

Contractions will have their own words instead. Sign language won’t qualify with negatives like cannot = can + not. Instead can’t is it’s own word. There’s contractions in the southern language like “y’all” which takes the sign for all, and puts both hands in the finger spelling of y for the action. So it’s y + all = y’all. I’m not personally sure of other southernisms in sign language personally, but southern deaf communities would be able to answer that easily!

ASL also has its own idioms and things! Sign being used by deaf people most prominently, there’s an option for signing “In-Eye-Out-Eye” which is that something has gone “in one eye and out the other” instead of “one ear and out the other.” Since the language is visual instead of verbal!

There are many scripts online you can follow, many ways to tweak your message to fit your senator (ESPECIALLY if they are up for reelection this year). Whether it's a recording you reach or a real person, be straightforward, don't argue, just let your rep know that you are a constituent and you oppose the KIDS act, etc.