#stokoe

The primary purpose of this blog is to showcase, archive, document, preserve and practice ASLWrite/SLWrite.

That said, there are several writing systems out there and I'd like to keep track of them as well, even though they aren't showcased.

I'm going to post this prematurely with the few I know of (or whatever number I have found by the time I hit post) and some others I found while researching , but I might add additional systems as I find them.

Here's a list with 1-3 links s for each, but they may not be a defacto or official links.

The first is obviously ASLWrite* Development by community (join!) Loonnggg list of other relevant links

Then si5 (the precursor to ASLWrite) Wayback Machine page si5 Youtube pagesentence video (notice the similarities with ASLWrite) si5 original page (dead link) si5.org Wikipedia page Brief video that explains what happened to si5 (though others might be keeping it alive, I don't know) Old video on ASLWrite learning materials

Signwriting The main landing page with tons of resources Signwriting Youtube channel A Spanish manual (this system seems to be common with sign languages associated with Spanish speaking countries) Sign Writing for Mexican Sign Language

SigNotation Video playlist by [email protected] Writing Guide

GLOSS (the most widespread system I've seen) Handspeak GLOSS Guide A GLOSS sign bank Ao3 story that incorporates GLOSS with English (I need to find one that is family friendly and then I will link it)

Hamburg Sign Language Notation System (HamNoSys) Main landing page with tons of resources Wikipedia page

Stokoe notation Wikipedia page Video reviewing it

SignFont Notation (this is very limited and I can only find one link) Description

Symbol Font (actually pretty cool; If ASLWrite hadn't developed a typable font, this would be very tempting. But I can only find the pages below on it and nothing else, anywhere) Explanation page Example Page

There is a last one I want to mention with CAUTION because it looks kind of interesting: AusWrit. 1. it was created by a hearing person 2. it doesn't appear to be in use anywhere 3. It has some minor incorrect stuff with ASLWrite (so take that with a grain of salt) Only Deaf/deaf HH/Hoh who use Auslan can say whether this is an ok system so I would only look into it as an interesting foray rather than as a primary system, and please remember, most other systems above can do multiple sign languages (including ASLWrite, but under the umbrella of SLWrite).. I included it because I ran across it both on tumblr and youtube independently, its super interesting, and the description by the linguist (unintentially) highlights features that persist across writing systems, or have come into play in multiple systems later, after academic notations systems missed them. Here is an old list of various systems (I did not include all of them here because I am running out of brain space to evaluate stuff). It includes si5, the precursor to ASLWrite/SLwrite, but ASLWrite/SLwrite itself. Here are some other lists of systems I found but didn't vet. ------------------

One thing I've heard is that American sign language dictionaries are afraid to include one of these writing systems with their video of signs for fear of being seen as favoring one over the other (I've heard this from more than one source, but don't quote me). But I would love to see is a dictionary repository that has the version for each of these.

Say for an example an entry for the sign "Support" (as seen here or here)

That entry would have a video and then underneath the video it would have space for the six-ten systems (people could apply to add a system which mods would check just to make sure its not spam or trolling or kids playing around). The spaces would be filled out (with a date for that version and credit of who wrote it) for each of those versions. If there was a blank for a designated space, it would be because no one has contributed that version yet, so no system can be privileged over another -- it would depend on users or moderators filling in the blanks over time, like a sign language writing wiki.

I can't do it (I can barely keep up with this), but I think that would be the solution to the fear of sign language dictionaries privileging one system over another and ending up not presenting any writing system.

I also noticed that after a flurry of hope when si5 came out (its bones really are a good system), it was removed from ASLized as well as other places because of si5's collapse, so this might also make dictionaries hold back. It can seem iffy to invest time and space and authority in a system that might disappear. But this is also why a wiki would be great. If a system falls completely out of use, there would be a way that tracks its birth and the fragments of its life.

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“I should have learned over those eight years that guilt can neither be worked off nor outdistanced. But I did not, and in the end my desperation to be rid of it had driven me back to my hometown. I worked hard there, with Stan and with Marla, trying to force the present to compensate the past. I did the best I could. But it didn't make any difference.

Stan had believed that life would take care of him. And though his mind was less capable than mine he had been smarter than me. He had understood that you cannot hang on to guilt so desperately, so tenaciously, and hope to live a life that is either bearable or worthwhile.

Now, with my utter failure staring me in the face, I saw, finally, that he had been right. It was not the fixing of guilt that was important, but learning to find a way to come to terms with it, to understand that the past must be lived with, not forever battled against.

My guilt had become the structure of my world, but that day, as I watched the waters of the lake darken, the sheer weight of regret I carried finally pushed me beyond itself and somehow, by overload, cauterized that part of me which made such an ongoing agony of my mistakes. I'd simply had too much to take any more, but I also knew that if I kept feeding my guilt, kept it alive at such a level, I would certainly destroy what little there was left in the world that I still held dear. There would be no chance at all for Marla and me.

I was not absolved, I was not free of everything I had ever done. My past would always be with me and I would always regret so much of it, but there was now some curtain drawn across it, through which it could still be seen but which muted its sounds and colors and filtered it just enough that its incandescent horror could no longer scorch the present so deeply.

Perhaps it would not last. Perhaps my guilt would again catch me and begin anew the process of tearing the lives of those around me to pieces. But for now I was beyond it and I would use this respite from it as carefully as I could to build a life with Marla in which she and I would at last be able to find some measure of joy in each other. Sometime in the future. Sometime, if we were lucky.” (pages 390, 391)