Terlu Niuvu Sign Language

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:31 am    

I have been working on a writing system for Terlu Niuvu Sign Language (a descendant of American Sign Language, adopted by the Deaf of various cultures and species within my conworld [as there is no Quanafi SL nor Yawurenyi SL]).

For those of you unfamiliar with sign languages let me give you a little background. If you are familiar with them, skip to the pictures. All of the background will be in terms of ASL as my knowledge of other SLs is minimal at best.

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The 5 main parameters of a sign:

1) Handshape -- the form your hand takes during the sign

2) Orientation -- the direction the palm faces

3) Position -- where in the signing space the sign is made

4) Movement -- how the sign moves through the signing space

5) Facial expression -- conveys grammar, intensity ("tension"), distinguishes signs with similar meaning (like mad vs grouchy, excited vs thrilled)

Here are all the handshape glyphs, for photos of the hands associated with most of them, go to http://www.handspeak.com/abc/index-hand.php

These are the letters (top two rows) and numbers 1-40 in TNSL writing.

Later  I will scan and upload some words and sentences (with links to videos online of the ASL signs being signed). I will also provide more information on the differences between TNSL and ASL.

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