Sign Language With a "Lisp"

[Brown]

Today's commentary inlcudes some fingerspelled letters. As of this writing, the letters apppear to spell out "B-A-K-E." My guess is that Mr. Randi intended to spell "F-A-K-E," and I have e-mailed him about that.

The "F" has the index finger curled to the thumb. You can see examples of the ASL alphabet here.

It may be worth noting that some signers do not sign as "cleanly" as others, and in effect, they sign with a "speech impediment." The fingerspelling illustrated in Mr. Randi's commentary does not seem to me to be very "clean." The "E," for example, is not very clean. Generally, the fingertips should rest atop or above the thumb, rather than being tucked behind it, otherwise the "E" might be confused with "S," which is more fist-like.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

I noticed that too! I went through the entire alphabet trying to figure out what the heck that was finger spelling. Then I read the commentary, trying to figure out what BAKE had to do with anything. It's not even a good B, at least how I was taught. The thumb should be further across the palm.

Once when I was taking sign language, one of the other students was trying to fingerspell "spider" but kept confusing D and F. As in spifer. She also once confused "potato" and "Protestant". Made for an interesting sentence. "The meat was tasty, but the Protestants were delicious."

 

[Brown]

I noticed that too! I went through the entire alphabet trying to figure out what the heck that was finger spelling. Then I read the commentary, trying to figure out what BAKE had to do with anything. It's not even a good B, at least how I was taught. The thumb should be further across the palm.

You are correct, the "B" isn't very clean either. The thumb should be bent. Some people extend the thumb across the palm. If you raise the palm toward the viewer with the thumb straight, it might be confused with the sign for "yours."

For that matter, the "K" leaves something to be desired. I prefer to have the thumb clearly touching the middle finger, to avoid confusion with "V."

Mr. Randi has sent me an e-mail indicating a correction is in the works....

Edited to clarify.

 

[Lisa Simpson]

At least they got the A correct.

 

[patnray]

I've heard that signers who sign in more than one language often sign with accents in their non-native languages... Maybe english was not the model's first language?

 

[Lisa Simpson]

My sign language teacher said there are "accents" across the US (he grew up in Chicago, went to Galludet University, then came to CA). Regardless, the first letter was absolutely wrong. I saw it's been changed now. Much better.

 

[Brown]

I wrote to my old man about Randi's column. My dad is a nationally recognized authority on deafness (no kidding). He says he has not had the experience of anyone faking deafness, but "because the world is so full of kooks," it didn't really surprise him.

My dad is now retired from interpretation, but when he interpreted, he would always wear a dark suit, so that his hands could be more easily seen by those who were watching his signs.

I don't know this as a fact, but I understand (from my dad and from Dr. Oliver Sacks) that American Sign Language is very close to French sign language, but different from British sign language. Thus, an American could converse more or less fluently in French sign language, even without knowing French, but could not converse in his own language of English with someone from Great Britain.

 

[DrMatt]

I assumed that BAKE was meant as a random word, and sent a message with that in the header, though the thumb in B wasn't right. I'm still not satisfied with the K, which to my eyes should sprawl in 3 dimensions so it looks like a genuine letter K from many points of view, but the word FAKE makes more sense there. Of course, I mentioned the index finger stroking sideways from the lips (the sign "lie" or "fake"), but that requires animation.

Yes, a very large component of modern ASL comes from the sign language which Epeé and Sicard cobbled together from local signs and French grammar in order to proselytize Roman Catholicism to the deaf in Paris--and out of which grew the first institute for the deaf which employed deaf teachers. The vector for the spread of that vocabulary and grammar was Laurent Clerc, imported from Paris to Maryland by Gallaudet to set up the first school for the deaf with funds signed over by Lincoln. Even today, the sign "see" is initialized with the V-hand for "voir", and the sign "seek" is initialized with the C-hand for "chercher", for instance.

Sometimes Gallaudet University Web Site has informative exhibits on these kinds of topics. I've met hearing people who were trying to pass for deaf--they were a bit unbalanced, I'd say.