(no subject)

[deird1]

So, I knew that ASL had a different alphabet to Auslan. (Our alphabet is two-handed; ASL is one-handed.)

What I hadn't realised until today was that they have different numbers as well.

I looked up the ASL alphabet today, and found this:




As an Auslan person, that bottom row looks to me like:
0, 1, 2, 8, 4, 5, 3 ...followed by words I don't know.


No larger point. I just find it interesting that counting can be so different in different countries.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

Wow. That would make it challenging for American and Australian sign language users to communicate.


Gabrielle

[deird1]

Yep! I knew that most of the signs were different - but you expect at least a few to be so obvious that clearly they'd be the same...

[velvetwhip]

It's weird that ASL and Auslan are foreign languages to each other when Americans and Australians both speak English.


Gabrielle

[deird1]

As I understand it, Auslan developed out of British sign (so did New Zealand sign), whereas ASL is from Irish sign. Totally different language groups.

[velvetwhip]

Ah. Well I learned something new today.


Gabrielle

[angelikitten]

I thought ASL developed from the French Sign Language (LSF)?

[deird1]

By way of Ireland, I believe...

[shehasathree]

Some linguistics refer to the BANZSL (British, Aus+NZ Sign Language) language group (or even consider each a dialect of the same language). American Sign Language is completely unrelated. It just happens to share a writing system with a bunch of other (English( Sign Languages.

[a2zmom]

That is fascinating. I was well aware that the alphabet was very different between different signing systems but I had no idea the numbers would be as well.

[deird1]

Me neither!

[beer_good_foamy]

Wait, the alphabet is two-handed? Huh. I barely know the basics of Swedish sign language, let alone any others, but I sort of took for granted that the alphabet is usually one-handed. Of course, with two hands you don't have to make up quite as many different shapes so it makes perfect sense, but still... huh.

Of course, the Swedish alphabet has to incorporate hand movements to get the umlauts in there:

[angelikitten]

I think the Auslan alphabet is similar to the BSL one, which you can see here (I think it defaults to right-handed, but you can do it left handed too).

I hadn't even thought about how letters with different accents would be signed before.

[deird1]

It looks the same to me, yes.

[deird1]

Cool! I like how the umlauts are done.

I find two-handed much easier. I've never really been able to manage the ASL alphabet, because all the hand shapes are so similar. Whereas the letters in Auslan are much more distinct.

[immer_am_lesen]

Wouldn't it be nice if sign language could be universal- the same signs the world over. :-)

[deird1]

Convenient, certainly. :)

[angelikitten]

Even just in BSL, the signs for numbers vary quite a bit. This sheet shows two of the systems used here, and the way I learned to sign numbers 20+ doesn't even make it onto the sheet.

[deird1]

Interesting!

The first ones are what Auslan does.

[jesuswasbatman]

Last year, Doctor Who had a two-part story featuring a genuinely deaf actress playing a deaf character who used BSL only, and some American fans accused the show of making up random gestures to fake sign language.