I'm using [ ] to indicate #signlanguage for this draft. Going to need to do some research on ways sign languags are notated. I know a bit of #asl notation, but for a fiction book I need something that's going to be readable to English monolinguists.
[old weaver builds new family] one of eir grandparents hand-spoke, with eir hands tilted forward in a "offering" gesture that meant could mean "Do you know this?" or "Did you want this?"
@jessmahler Differences in skill can then be marked by differences in complexity and lexicon.
@jessmahler interesting approach!
@demonkind Thanks. I'm not building the sign language as a full #conlang -- I don't know enough of sign languages and particularly the grammar of sign languages to do more than a half-assed job of it. But I do want to convey a feel for how the sign language works and how it functions differently from spoken language.
So far, this is the best I've come up with. I'm hoping to get feedback from a culturally Deaf sensitivity reader when this draft is done.
@demonkind Also, serious deja vu. Have we discussed this before?
@jessmahler Not that I recall, but I do find the subject fascinating. Language is so much more than words in a row. “‘Lorem ipsum dialogue’ she said, in sign language” conveys so much less than would a more thorough description of the ways she might express herself, both formal (ASL etc) and informal body language. I think about the signers that work at rock and hiphop concerts, and sign poets/performers.
@jessmahler In my own work I decided to treat sign language similarly as any other language.
That is, if you have characters that normally speak different languages but switch to a common language when necessary, you write them as translated to that common language's syntax and lexicon.
Similarly, sign language is just another language, and when used as a common language it can be written as translated to your text's main language's syntax and lexicon.