I am in favour of such a project. There are however a few relevant issues
- SignWriting is currently not supported in UTF-8 and MediaWiki expects UTF-8.
- There is software specific to SignWriting, it can be used for a Wikipedia
- Due to the technical issues, there is no way it can use the Incubator.
For me it is important that with this Wikipedia project the culture of the deaf will get a boost. When SignWriting becomes even more mainstream, it has the potential to become the script for many of the other sign languages as well.
Practically, I would like to start with this project on WMF servers using the wiki like software that already exists. I would look for programmers and or funding to enable MediaWiki to support SignWriting. I would look for funding to create a full implementation of the SignWriting glyphs in UNICODE.
Thanks,
GerardM
6 comments:
A sign-language Wikipedia would be a fantastic thing - even in English, the various sign languages spoken in those countries are structurally completely different languages from English, and often from each other.
As I recall discussions a while ago on wikipedia-l, a big problem was that there isn't a writing standard the people using those languages actually use to write them in. (Sort of like speaking Cantonese but writing standard Chinese, i.e. Mandarin.) Am I wrong on this, and there is a written form of the actual sign languages that the speakers commonly use?
There is no such thing as an English sign-language. The difference between American and British sign-language is as big as the difference between Mandarin and English. :)
The proposal is for American Sign language. The most developed script and the script that has the biggest adoption is SignWriting.
You have to appreciate SignWriting in the same way as the Latin or the Cyrillic script (it is a recognised script). The big thing is that as SignWriting becomes more popular, it can also be used for other sig-languages.
Thanks,
GerardM
i remember seeing a proposal for this a little while back. we do have the full support of the signwriting creator behind this project; she thinks it is a fantastic idea. the problem is using any kind of conveyance through writing ASL is going to cut off a mass majority of people who use ASL contributing to such a wikipedia.
video of ASL articles would really be the absolute best way to preserve that large community of contributors, but then you run into technical problems (videos are big, how can you 'edit' out a sentence or section). while video is more and more popular lately in vlogs (see deafread.com) it isn't necessarily compatible with the wiki model.
SignWriting is as far as I understand it relatively easy to learn. It is also the most credible way of writing sign-languages.
We do not prevent the creation of a project because a large part of the community that speaks this language cannot read or write it. This is very much similar.
Thanks,
GerardM
(now including link)
Hi Gerard,
maybe you want to contact these guys?
László
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