Manually Coded English
Encyclopedia
Manually Coded English is a general term used to describe a variety of visual communication methods expressed through the hands which attempt to represent the English language
. Unlike deaf sign languages
which have evolved naturally in deaf communities, the different forms of MCE were artificially created, and generally follow the grammar
of English.
— speaking and signing at the same time. This is not possible with, for example, American Sign Language
, because it has a very different grammar
(including word order) than English. Deaf sign languages make use of spatial relationships, facial expression, and body positioning, while MCE tends to be a linear and purely manual communication system, not to be confused with a language.
In English-speaking countries, it is common for users of Deaf sign languages to code-switch
into a form of MCE when conversing with someone whose dominant language is English, or when quoting something from English. MCE is also sometimes favored by hearing people, for whom a manual version of their own language is much easier to learn than a deaf sign language.
to deaf children. Education
is still the most common setting where Manually Coded English is used; not only with deaf students, but also children with other kinds of speech or language difficulties.
The use of MCE in deaf education is controversial. Contemporary deaf education can favor one of three streams — sign language
, MCE, and oralism
— or a combination of two or all three. Some opponents of MCE note that the use of MCE often occurs with an attempt to deny or replace the natural languages of the deaf community, which are seen as retarding the child's chances of acquiring of 'good English'. Conversely, these opponents argue that to deny a deaf child access to a natural sign language is to deny the child access to language in general — that exposing a deaf child to an awkward, unnatural coding of a spoken language is no substitute for fundamental natural language acquisition — and that a child must be fully exposed to natural language early in order have the best command of any language later. (That is, a deaf child must be fully exposed to a signed language, and denying this exposure prevents the learning of language at the age when it is crucial for mental development.) Also, they argue that the supplanting of native languages is a form of colonialism
. In the manualism
vs. oralism
debate, some forms of MCE are opposed by oralists who believe that even manual English lessens the motivation for children to learn to speak and speechread. Within the signing Deaf Community in the UK use of manually coded English in social settings outside of education is sometimes regarded as "old fashioned" and characteristic of older people (who grew up during the repression of sign languages in the educational system).
uses 26 different signs to represent the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. Every word is spelled as in written English, and as with written English, certain linguistic
and paralinguistic
elements such as intonation
are not represented.
It is a very simple form of MCE for English speakers to learn, and is often the first 'point of contact' for a hearing person before learning a sign language. Fingerspelling is also used by Deaf people as a part of sign languages, for some proper nouns, or when quoting words or short phrases from English.
Exclusive fingerspelling is rarely used for extended communication, as it is a very slow method of representing English. It still has currency in some deafblind settings (see tactile signing
). Exclusive fingerspelling has a place in the history of deaf education; in the US it is known as the Rochester Method (see below). Elderly deaf people in the UK and Australia may also use a lot of fingerspelling as a result of their education.
Note that different regions use different manual alphabets to represent English — a two-handed system
is used in the UK
, Australia
and New Zealand
, and one-handed systems are used in North America
(see ASL alphabet), Ireland
(see Irish Sign Language
), Singapore
and the Philippines
. Both one and two handed alphabets are used in South Africa
.
, New Zealand
, Ireland
, the UK
and the USA. However each 'Signed English' has borrowed signs from the local Deaf Sign Language and invented new signs to represent the words and grammar of English. They tend to follow a loose logic of sound rather than the strict phonetic structure of Cued Speech
. For example, in Australian Signed English 'uncomfortable' is represented in signs meaning 'un', 'come', 'for', and 'table'. A visual sign taken from a deaf sign language may be generalised to represent homonym
s of the English word — for example, the Auslan
sign for a 'fly' (insect) may be used in Signed English for the verb (to) 'fly'.
Signed English tends to be slower than spoken English, and teachers using it have usually found themselves 'cutting corners' and reverting to a kind of pidgin sign (see Pidgin Sign English).
', because it doesn't display the features linguists expect of a pidgin
.
PSE drops the initializations and grammatical markers used in other forms of MCE, but retains basic English word order. In the US, ASL features often seen in PSE include the listing of grouped items and the repetition of some pronouns and verbs.
, syntax
and pragmatics
of English are used, with the MCE signing serving as a support for the reception of speech. Signs are borrowed from the local deaf sign language and/or are artificial signs invented by educators of the deaf.
The terms SSS and Sim-Com are now often used synonymously with Total Communication
(TC), though the original philosophy of TC is quite different.
, who developed Cued Speech in 1966 at Gallaudet University, sought to combat poor reading skills among deaf college students by providing deaf children with a solid linguistic background. Cued Speech must be combined with mouthing
(associated with the speaking of a language), as the hand shape, hand placement, and information on the mouth combine as unique feature bundles to represent phonemic values. Cues are not intended to be understood without mouthing, however, many deaf native cuers are able to decipher the cues alone without the use of the mouth. Similarly they tend to be able to perform well at deciphering the information on the mouth without the use of the hand (which is commonly referred to as lip reading). Cued Speech has been adapted for languages and dialects around the world.
Signed English Project to develop children's books written in both illustrated signs and written English.
s - the same sign is used to sign blue and blew. Many gestures from ASL are initialized in SEE1 - the ASL sign for have is signed with the H handshape in SEE1. Grammatical markers also have signs of their own, including the -ing ending and articles such as the, which are not typically included in ASL. The verb "to be" is unique in SEE1 - is, am, and are can be signed in the same way, again using initialization. SEE1 is occasionally referred to as Morphemic Sign System (MSS), and it has also been adapted in Poland into Seeing Essential Polish.
Signing Exact English uses more markers as opposed to Signed English, which uses 14 markers.
es, LOVE is written using the notation system developed by William Stokoe
.
every word. It was originated by Zenas Westervelt in 1878, shortly after he opened the Western New York Institute for Deaf-Mutes (presently known as the Rochester School for the Deaf
). Use of the Rochester method continued until approximately the 1940s, and there are still deaf adults from the Rochester area who were taught with the Rochester method. It has fallen out of favor because it is a tedious and time-consuming process to spell everything manually, though it is still used in some deafblind settings (see tactile signing
).
and combined them with fingerspelling, as well as signs and markers invented by hearing educators, to give a manual representation of spoken English.
A single sign is often differentiated into a number of English words by clearly mouthing the word. Thus in order to comprehend SSE well, one needs good lipreading (speechreading) skills, as well as a good knowledge of English grammar.
Limited Interpreting services are available in the UK for SSE.
National Signed English is a recently promoted communication system that uses a combination of B.S.L., S.S.E. and N.S.E. Its authors (OCSL) claim it creates perfect syntax, present and past tenses and allows the user to communicate in word perfect English. Promotional literature for this proposed new system has generated considerable controversy in the UK Deaf Community and alarm among Sign Language Professionals because of remarks about British Sign Language by the charities Operations Director styling it a "basic communication system".
was originated in Britain by Sir Richard Paget in the 1930s and developed further by Lady Grace Paget and Dr Pierre Gorman to be used with children with speech or communication difficulties, such as deaf children. It is a grammatical sign system which reflects normal patterns of English. The system uses 37 basic signs and 21 standard hand postures, which can be combined to represent a large vocabulary of English words, including word endings and verb tenses. The signs do not correspond to natural signs of the Deaf community.
The system was widespread in Deaf schools in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s, but since the emergence of British Sign Language
and the BSL-based Signed English in deaf education, its use is now largely restricted to the field of speech and language disorder.
(especially the southern dialect), invented new signs, and borrowed a number of signs from American Sign Language
that have now made their way into everyday use in Auslan. It is still used in many schools. Australasian Signed English is also in use in New Zealand
.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Unlike deaf sign languages
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
which have evolved naturally in deaf communities, the different forms of MCE were artificially created, and generally follow the grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of English.
Deaf sign languages and Manually Coded English
MCE can successfully be used with Simultaneous CommunicationSimultaneous Communication
Simultaneous Communication, SimCom or Sign Supported Speech is a technique sometimes used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign language persons in which both a spoken language and a manual variant of that language are used simultaneously...
— speaking and signing at the same time. This is not possible with, for example, American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
, because it has a very different grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
(including word order) than English. Deaf sign languages make use of spatial relationships, facial expression, and body positioning, while MCE tends to be a linear and purely manual communication system, not to be confused with a language.
In English-speaking countries, it is common for users of Deaf sign languages to code-switch
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
into a form of MCE when conversing with someone whose dominant language is English, or when quoting something from English. MCE is also sometimes favored by hearing people, for whom a manual version of their own language is much easier to learn than a deaf sign language.
Manually Coded English in education
The different forms of Manually Coded English were originally developed for use in the education of deaf children, as their literacy in written English has been typically low compared to their hearing peers. This educational method was popularised by Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Epee who in the 1790s developed a method using hand-signs to teach a form of the French languageFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
to deaf children. Education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
is still the most common setting where Manually Coded English is used; not only with deaf students, but also children with other kinds of speech or language difficulties.
The use of MCE in deaf education is controversial. Contemporary deaf education can favor one of three streams — sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
, MCE, and oralism
Oralism
Oralism is the education of deaf students through spoken language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech instead of using sign language within the classroom...
— or a combination of two or all three. Some opponents of MCE note that the use of MCE often occurs with an attempt to deny or replace the natural languages of the deaf community, which are seen as retarding the child's chances of acquiring of 'good English'. Conversely, these opponents argue that to deny a deaf child access to a natural sign language is to deny the child access to language in general — that exposing a deaf child to an awkward, unnatural coding of a spoken language is no substitute for fundamental natural language acquisition — and that a child must be fully exposed to natural language early in order have the best command of any language later. (That is, a deaf child must be fully exposed to a signed language, and denying this exposure prevents the learning of language at the age when it is crucial for mental development.) Also, they argue that the supplanting of native languages is a form of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
. In the manualism
Manualism
Manualism is a method of education of deaf students using sign language within the classroom.-History:While working at Gallaudet University in the 1970s, William Stokoe felt that American Sign Language was a language in its own right; with its own independent syntax and grammar...
vs. oralism
Oralism
Oralism is the education of deaf students through spoken language by using lip reading, speech, and mimicking the mouth shapes and breathing patterns of speech instead of using sign language within the classroom...
debate, some forms of MCE are opposed by oralists who believe that even manual English lessens the motivation for children to learn to speak and speechread. Within the signing Deaf Community in the UK use of manually coded English in social settings outside of education is sometimes regarded as "old fashioned" and characteristic of older people (who grew up during the repression of sign languages in the educational system).
Fingerspelling
FingerspellingFingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
uses 26 different signs to represent the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet. Every word is spelled as in written English, and as with written English, certain linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
and paralinguistic
Paralanguage
Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously, and it includes the pitch, volume, and, in some cases, intonation of speech. Sometimes the definition is restricted to...
elements such as intonation
Intonation (linguistics)
In linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation does distinguish words. Intonation, rhythm, and stress are the three main elements of linguistic prosody...
are not represented.
It is a very simple form of MCE for English speakers to learn, and is often the first 'point of contact' for a hearing person before learning a sign language. Fingerspelling is also used by Deaf people as a part of sign languages, for some proper nouns, or when quoting words or short phrases from English.
Exclusive fingerspelling is rarely used for extended communication, as it is a very slow method of representing English. It still has currency in some deafblind settings (see tactile signing
Tactile signing
Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with both a sight and hearing impairment , which is based on a standard system of Deaf manual signs.-Kinds of tactile signing:...
). Exclusive fingerspelling has a place in the history of deaf education; in the US it is known as the Rochester Method (see below). Elderly deaf people in the UK and Australia may also use a lot of fingerspelling as a result of their education.
Note that different regions use different manual alphabets to represent English — a two-handed system
Two-handed manual alphabet
Several manual alphabets in use around the world employ two hands for some or all of the letters.- BANZSL alphabet :This alphabet is used in the BANZSL group of sign languages. It has been used in British Sign Language and Auslan since at least the 19th century, and in New Zealand Sign Language...
is used in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and one-handed systems are used in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
(see ASL alphabet), Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(see Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language
Irish Sign Language is the sign language of Ireland, used primarily in the Republic of Ireland. It is also used in Northern Ireland, though British Sign Language is also used. Irish Sign Language is more closely related to French Sign Language than to British Sign Language, which was first used...
), Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Both one and two handed alphabets are used in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Signed English
Different systems called 'Signed English' have been developed in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the USA. However each 'Signed English' has borrowed signs from the local Deaf Sign Language and invented new signs to represent the words and grammar of English. They tend to follow a loose logic of sound rather than the strict phonetic structure of Cued Speech
Cued speech
Cued Speech is a system of communication used with and among deaf or hard of hearing people. It is a phonemic-based system which makes traditionally spoken languages accessible by using a small number of handshapes in different locations near the mouth , as a supplement to lipreading...
. For example, in Australian Signed English 'uncomfortable' is represented in signs meaning 'un', 'come', 'for', and 'table'. A visual sign taken from a deaf sign language may be generalised to represent homonym
Homonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...
s of the English word — for example, the Auslan
Auslan
Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. The term Auslan is an acronym of "Australian sign language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, although the language itself is much older...
sign for a 'fly' (insect) may be used in Signed English for the verb (to) 'fly'.
Signed English tends to be slower than spoken English, and teachers using it have usually found themselves 'cutting corners' and reverting to a kind of pidgin sign (see Pidgin Sign English).
Pidgin Sign English (PSE), or 'Contact Sign'
Not strictly a form of Manually Coded English, PSE in fact is a blend of a local Deaf Sign Language and English. This contact language can take place anywhere on a continuum of intermediate stages, from very 'English-like' to very 'Deaf-language-like'; signers from these two different language backgrounds will often meet somewhere in the middle. Because of PSE's standing as a bridge between two distinct languages, it is used differently by each individual depending on their knowledge of English and of the deaf sign language. PSE is increasingly referred to as 'Contact SignContact Sign
A contact sign language, or contact sign, is a variety or style of language that arises from contact between a deaf sign language and a spoken language...
', because it doesn't display the features linguists expect of a pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
.
PSE drops the initializations and grammatical markers used in other forms of MCE, but retains basic English word order. In the US, ASL features often seen in PSE include the listing of grouped items and the repetition of some pronouns and verbs.
Sign Supported Speech (SSS), Simultaneous Communication or Sim-Com
Sign Supported Speech involves voicing everything as in spoken English, while simultaneously signing a form of MCE. The vocabularyVocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
and pragmatics
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...
of English are used, with the MCE signing serving as a support for the reception of speech. Signs are borrowed from the local deaf sign language and/or are artificial signs invented by educators of the deaf.
The terms SSS and Sim-Com are now often used synonymously with Total Communication
Total Communication
Total Communication is an approach to deaf education that aims to make use of a number of modes of communication such as signed, oral, auditory, written and visual aids, depending on the particular needs and abilities of the child.-History:...
(TC), though the original philosophy of TC is quite different.
Cued Speech
Cued Speech is unique among forms of MCE in that it does not use borrowed or invented signs in an attempt to convey English. Instead, Cued Speech uses eight handshapes - none of which are derived from signed languages - to represent consonant phonemes, and four hand placements around the face to represent vowel phonemes. R. Orin CornettR. Orin Cornett
Dr. R. Orin Cornett was an American physicist, born in Driftwood, Oklahoma. Dr. Cornett received his Ph.D. in physics and applied mathematics from the University of Texas. While working at the U.S. Office of Education he discovered that many deaf adults fail to achieve literacy at a native-level....
, who developed Cued Speech in 1966 at Gallaudet University, sought to combat poor reading skills among deaf college students by providing deaf children with a solid linguistic background. Cued Speech must be combined with mouthing
Mouthing
In sign language, mouthing is the production of visual syllables with the mouth while signing. Although not present in all sign languages, and sometimes not in signers at all levels of education, where it does occur it may be an essential element of a sign, distinguishing signs which would...
(associated with the speaking of a language), as the hand shape, hand placement, and information on the mouth combine as unique feature bundles to represent phonemic values. Cues are not intended to be understood without mouthing, however, many deaf native cuers are able to decipher the cues alone without the use of the mouth. Similarly they tend to be able to perform well at deciphering the information on the mouth without the use of the hand (which is commonly referred to as lip reading). Cued Speech has been adapted for languages and dialects around the world.
Signed English (SE) - American
The term 'Signed English' refers to a much simpler system than SEE1, SEE2, or LOVE. Signed English (occasionally referred to as Siglish) uses ASL signs in English word order, but only 14 grammatical markers. The most common method of Signed English in the US is that created by Harry Bornstein, who worked on the GallaudetGallaudet University
Gallaudet University is a federally-chartered university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, located in the District of Columbia, U.S...
Signed English Project to develop children's books written in both illustrated signs and written English.
Seeing Essential English (SEE1)
Developed in the US in 1966 by a deaf teacher named David Anthony, SEE1 was intended to teach proper grammatical construction by using gestures borrowed from ASL but it implements English word order, and other grammatical markers, such as conjugation. In SEE1, all compound words are formed as separate signs - instead of using the ASL sign for butterfly, SEE1 places the signs for but, er, and fly in sequential order. SEE1 also uses the same sign for all homonymHomonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...
s - the same sign is used to sign blue and blew. Many gestures from ASL are initialized in SEE1 - the ASL sign for have is signed with the H handshape in SEE1. Grammatical markers also have signs of their own, including the -ing ending and articles such as the, which are not typically included in ASL. The verb "to be" is unique in SEE1 - is, am, and are can be signed in the same way, again using initialization. SEE1 is occasionally referred to as Morphemic Sign System (MSS), and it has also been adapted in Poland into Seeing Essential Polish.
Signing Exact English (SEE2)
SEE2 was developed by Gerilee Gustason, Esther Zawolkow, and Donna Pfetzing in the early 1970s. As an offshoot of SEE1, many features of SEE2 are identical to that code system. Initializations and grammatical markers are also used in SEE2, but compound words with an equivalent ASL sign are used as the ASL sign, as with butterfly. SEE2 is also used in Singapore. About 75% to 80% of SEE2 signs are either borrowed from ASL or are modified ASL signs.Signing Exact English uses more markers as opposed to Signed English, which uses 14 markers.
- As there is no more formal use of SEE1, Signing Exact English is no longer referred to as SEE2, but rather SEE.
Linguistics of Visual English (LOVE)
Developed by Dennis Wampler, LOVE is also quite similar to SEE1 in construction. While most forms of ASL and MCE are transcribed using English glossGloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
es, LOVE is written using the notation system developed by William Stokoe
William Stokoe
William C. Stokoe, Jr. was a scholar who researched American Sign Language extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University. He coined the term cherology, the equivalent of phonology for sign language .Stokoe graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1941, and in...
.
Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE)
CASE, one of the more recently developed forms of MCE, combines the grammatical structure used in Signed English with the use of concepts rather than words, as is done in ASL. It is becoming one of the more common forms of MCE, and has been used in both interpreter training programs and mainstreamed deaf education. The term Sign Supported English (SSE) is sometimes used to refer to the same thing.Rochester Method
Perhaps the closest type of MCE to written English, the Rochester method involves fingerspellingFingerspelling
Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets , have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages around the world...
every word. It was originated by Zenas Westervelt in 1878, shortly after he opened the Western New York Institute for Deaf-Mutes (presently known as the Rochester School for the Deaf
Rochester School for the Deaf
Rochester School for the Deaf is a private, tuition-free school for deaf and hard of hearing students to attend in Rochester, New York. It is one of the oldest and most respected preK-12th grade schools for children with hearing loss and their families in the United States, and one of nine such...
). Use of the Rochester method continued until approximately the 1940s, and there are still deaf adults from the Rochester area who were taught with the Rochester method. It has fallen out of favor because it is a tedious and time-consuming process to spell everything manually, though it is still used in some deafblind settings (see tactile signing
Tactile signing
Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with both a sight and hearing impairment , which is based on a standard system of Deaf manual signs.-Kinds of tactile signing:...
).
Signed English (SE) — British
Intending to use signs that would be readily understood by deaf children, British Signed English borrowed signs from British Sign LanguageBritish Sign Language
British Sign Language is the sign language used in the United Kingdom , and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands,...
and combined them with fingerspelling, as well as signs and markers invented by hearing educators, to give a manual representation of spoken English.
Sign Supported English (SSE)
Sign Supported English is the British equivalent of Conceptually Accurate Signed English (see above). BSL signs are used in English grammar. As with PSE the balance of BSL signs to English varies greatly depending on the signer's knowledge of the two languages.A single sign is often differentiated into a number of English words by clearly mouthing the word. Thus in order to comprehend SSE well, one needs good lipreading (speechreading) skills, as well as a good knowledge of English grammar.
Limited Interpreting services are available in the UK for SSE.
National Signed English is a recently promoted communication system that uses a combination of B.S.L., S.S.E. and N.S.E. Its authors (OCSL) claim it creates perfect syntax, present and past tenses and allows the user to communicate in word perfect English. Promotional literature for this proposed new system has generated considerable controversy in the UK Deaf Community and alarm among Sign Language Professionals because of remarks about British Sign Language by the charities Operations Director styling it a "basic communication system".
Paget Gorman Sign System, AKA Paget Gorman Signed Speech (PGSS) or Paget Gorman Systematic Sign Language
The Paget Gorman Sign SystemPaget Gorman Sign System
The Paget Gorman Sign System, also known as Paget Gorman Signed Speech or Paget Gorman Systematic Sign Language is a manually coded form of the English language, designed to be used with children with speech or communication difficulties....
was originated in Britain by Sir Richard Paget in the 1930s and developed further by Lady Grace Paget and Dr Pierre Gorman to be used with children with speech or communication difficulties, such as deaf children. It is a grammatical sign system which reflects normal patterns of English. The system uses 37 basic signs and 21 standard hand postures, which can be combined to represent a large vocabulary of English words, including word endings and verb tenses. The signs do not correspond to natural signs of the Deaf community.
The system was widespread in Deaf schools in the UK from the 1960s to the 1980s, but since the emergence of British Sign Language
British Sign Language
British Sign Language is the sign language used in the United Kingdom , and is the first or preferred language of some deaf people in the UK; there are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands,...
and the BSL-based Signed English in deaf education, its use is now largely restricted to the field of speech and language disorder.
Australasian Signed English
In Australia, 'Signed English' was developed by a committee in the late 1970s, who took signs from AuslanAuslan
Auslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. The term Auslan is an acronym of "Australian sign language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, although the language itself is much older...
(especially the southern dialect), invented new signs, and borrowed a number of signs from American Sign Language
American Sign Language
American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...
that have now made their way into everyday use in Auslan. It is still used in many schools. Australasian Signed English is also in use in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.