Book,
(D)écrire les Langues des Signes : une approche grapholinguistique aux Langues des Signes.
Fluxus Editions, Brest, (2024)
DOI: 10.36824/2024-bianchini
Abstract
(De)noting Sign Languages: a grapholinguistic approach to sign languages
Most languages do not have a writing system, but it is still possible to write them by adapting an alphabetical system. Only sign languages (SL) cannot recourse to this trick: as visuo-gestural and bodily languages, they cannot be written using characters representing sounds. Even if the idea that SL needs some form of writing is not unanimous among the deaf, many attempts to put SL on paper have emerged: some, like SignWriting, aim to become a daily writing system of SL; others, like Typannot, seek to provide linguists with an instrument to note and denote SL functioning. The purpose of this volume is to present various attempts to provide a form of SL writing, in particular SignWriting and Typannot. By adopting a transdisciplinary and grapholinguistic approach, this book explores the close relationships between the concrete applications of a system, its glyphic forms and its organization, the scriptural gestures, and the handwritten and digital writing tools available to writers, as well as the requirements for readability and handling of written productions. The objective is to introduce these systems but also to provide anyone tempted by the challenge of developing a writing system for SL an overview of the multiple facets to consider and to give paths for reflection allowing them to tackle the most recurring problems.
