"This film was produced by General Hugh L. Scott and the U.S. Department of the Interior by an Act of Congress, for the purpose of preserving and recording Indian Sign Language in a variety of discourse styles. The meeting took place in September of 1930 in Browning, Montana, and is the largest known gathering of high-ranking representatives from Indian Nations to be filmed up until then. This footage comes courtesy of the National Archives, and was digitized with support from the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Tennessee."
Via Futility Closet, where an abbreviated version was posted.
I wonder if there is a universal sign language? Since you are presenting words as signs, a 'tree' sign is a 'tree sign' in any spoken language?
ReplyDeleteAs far as Plains Indian Sign Language goes (the sign language I assume is used in this video) it was "universal" in a large part of North America. But most other sign languages in the world differ a lot from place to place. For instance, the sign for "tree" in American Sign Language is completely different than the one in, say, Dutch Sign Language.
DeleteIt would be great if the sign for 'tree' (and all other words) would be the same in both ASL and DSL.
DeleteWhy are they different - is each (ASL and DSL) spelling the word 'tree' in their native language rather than using some kind of symbol / sign?
No, they just happen to have chosen different gestures to convey the same concept (In ASL the arms mimic a tree shape, in DSL you draw the outline of a tree in the air). And in many cases the signs don't even resemble the concept they describe: e.g. to say "day" in DSL you press your finger against your cheek. Languages tend to be arbitrary like that, including signed ones.
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