International Sign Language

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lms86

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Hi. I'm writing a paper for my ASL class on International Sign Language ("Gestuno") that was created in the 1950's. Does anyone know anything about it? If so, do you ever use it? How do you know about it? Have they ever taught it in residential schools? Does anyone think that having an international sign language would make life easier like during travels and such? Thanks for helping.
 
While I've had no experience/contact with any attempts or forms of international sign, I find the very concept disturbing at best. The differences in sign languages are just like spoken languages- what make that particular language distinct and beautiful in it's own way, also connecting it's users. To attempt to unify that into a "one sizes fits all" sign language would be a real shame.
 
lms86 said:
Hi. I'm writing a paper for my ASL class on International Sign Language ("Gestuno") that was created in the 1950's. Does anyone know anything about it? If so, do you ever use it? How do you know about it? Have they ever taught it in residential schools? Does anyone think that having an international sign language would make life easier like during travels and such? Thanks for helping.
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I don't know much about gestuno, but my impression is that it faced the same fate as esperanto. It was too artifical and died, and instead the language of the dominant superpower was used as an international sign language. Like english, spanish and chinese is international languages for spoken languages, ASL is the international choice for sign languages. Those who do not know ASL, often use iconic signs and classifiers shared by the different sign languages, though you often see ASL signs among them, too.

I haven't heard of gestuno teached in school.

That's what I think I know.
 
I don't think an international sign language would make international travel any easier. If the people providing travel services don't use any sign language or provide interpreters, then it's a moot point.
 
Absolutely, Reba. This is just more of "why don't you deafies do this the easy way, not your way.

Renaming 120-year-old (at least) Gestuna to International Sign Language, and making it the darling of polititians won't make any difference to deaf travelers, unless we're holding the hands of very skilled interpreters. In my case, she'd better be a looker.

It will be just like Esperanto, the "international" language which was invented to change and unify the world. So few speak and sign either Esperanto or Gestuna to make them virtually useless.

And it's not negative sour grapes. You cannot "invent" a language. It grows ever so slowly from the generations speaking or signing it (often taking its own twists and turns we who study and try to teach it don't much care for).
 
Something else I'm curious about. Are there any "native" users of Gestuno? That is, were there any children who were born into households where their first language acquired was Gestuno? Are there any communities of Gestuno users? Do they have a culture? :hmm:
 
flip said:
I don't know much about gestuno, but my impression is that it faced the same fate as esperanto. It was too artifical and died, and instead the language of the dominant superpower was used as an international sign language.
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When I attended Deaf Way II a few years ago the major presentations were interpreted into Gestuno. It's still being used at international conferences. I don't believe it's used anywhere else and I am pretty positive there are no "native" users.
 
Interpretrator said:
When I attended Deaf Way II a few years ago the major presentations were interpreted into Gestuno. It's still being used at international conferences. I don't believe it's used anywhere else and I am pretty positive there are no "native" users.
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I found this at wikipedia, so perhaps the label "Gestuno" was used at Deaf Way II, while it perhaps wasn't the same signs that was created artifically in the seventies for Gestuno?

The name Gestuno has fallen out of use, and the phrase "International Sign" is now more commonly used in English to identify this sign variety. Indeed, current IS has little in common with the signs published under the name 'Gestuno',
 
flip said:
I found this at wikipedia, so perhaps the label "Gestuno" was used at Deaf Way II, while it perhaps wasn't the same signs that was created artifically in the seventies for Gestuno?

The name Gestuno has fallen out of use, and the phrase "International Sign" is now more commonly used in English to identify this sign variety. Indeed, current IS has little in common with the signs published under the name 'Gestuno',
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Kind of gone the way of Cued Speech, huih?:giggle:
 
flip said:
:ty: Now, we have to do the impossible task of informing some people here about this fact.
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And it does seem to be impossible! :giggle: There are none so deaf as those who will not hear!
 
I've seen a little of IS, and I think it's kind of cool. I would hate only one sign language, but I think if all Deaf people knew a few basics of IS, it would be useful, like... bathroom, police, rent, hospital... basically, "travellers phrases", it might be useful. I'm quite keen on International Auxiliary Languages (IALs) though.

I tried learning some Esperanto but it's vile, and I may learn Interlingua instead. I speak some Lingua Franca Nova (both Interlingua and Lingua Franca Nova are creoles of Romance languages such as French, Spanish and Portuguese... but I think I like IA more) and I think they are useful, even if it is only to help you as a platform to communicating with a group of people. I was able to use some LFN to talk to someone from a Romance-speaking country once, without too much difficulty. :) I had a harder time understanding him than he did me.


I don't think IS even has a solid syntax, so the grammar can be applied in different ways and is usually signed in the grammar of the person's first sign language, or something. Correct me if wrong. So we have a collection of signs but no real grammar?



FENGYE DEAF WORLD-Sign Language Dictionary
This site has some International Signs on it. I think the fingerspelling alphabet is wrong though, they don't use that "T" or "F", if I recall correctly... (they're swearing in other parts of the world)
 
lms86 said:
Hi. I'm writing a paper for my ASL class on International Sign Language ("Gestuno") that was created in the 1950's. Does anyone know anything about it? If so, do you ever use it? How do you know about it? Have they ever taught it in residential schools? Does anyone think that having an international sign language would make life easier like during travels and such? Thanks for helping.
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I have been pondering and agonizing over the communication barriers for quite some time now. And, there is so much to consider. Just as has been said, languages have their own beauty and should not be watered down because they the culture and the history of that culture.

ASL is a living language. It grows. For expample, as technology advances, new signs emerge to accomodate new things. Take the signs for computer or Blue Tooth etc. Those things weren't even imaginable when Stokie compliled the first ASL dictionary let alone the untold centuries before that when sign was birthed from necessity. So, ASL changes to add signs, and some signs change and get shortened etc., but it has basic roots and structure that doesn't change.To change ASL drastically, other than it's natural morphing process, would be wrong, to say the least. I am sure that other countries feel just as passionately about their own signs.

Now, the hard thing is this. So many people are limited and isolated because of their inability to speak or hear. People who suffer from strokes, and autism and Down Syndrome, and asphasia, and apraxia etc, usually have a hard time with the spoken language. One head trauma can damage the ability to speak in an instant. So it isn't just the Deaf who need sign. Many of the people who suffer from those other afflictions are having at least limited success with ASL, or some basic ASL. The sad thing is that even if a person learns to sign, the people they want to talk to may not know how to sign. So, there you go again. Someone is being left out of the loop. Someone is left isolated from from other humans having no way to express his hopes or dreams, his talents, his fears, his since of humor, his anger or his love. But, how you go about fixin the situation is beyond me. Unless everyone could agree on a few simple or essential signs, it could never be universal. And to dismantle a language that has survived the generations would be a travesty. So, what to do? :(
 
I went to a school for the deaf and no, they didn't teach us International Sign Language.

I attended International sign classes as part of my volunteering stint, provided by Deaflympics and we learned what we needed to know prior to the opening of Deaflympics.

Now I don't remember much, if any of the International signs, unfortunately.

Can comprehend some of the signs if I do see them on video or in person.
 
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