A fifty-minute presentation for ASL & Deaf Studies students at Utah Valley University's 2013 Spring Silent Weekend. Intended to help attendees understand the etymology of country signs and how to appropriately incorporate them into their vocabularies

1. Around the
World in 50
Minutes:
Understanding How
Country Signs are Used
Doug Stringham, MS, QAIII
Utah Valley University

2. What are we going to do today?

3. • Learn about and understand etymologies
and evolution of country signs in ASL
• Understand and learn about how country
signs are given definition and a proposed
framework for country sign creation/validation

4. • Understand how Deaf communities use
and identify themselves with certain
country signs
• Learn several indigenous country signs

5. You’re a nerd, you know that?
So, where did this information
come from?

6. Researched country signs in
17 sign language dictionaries
printed between 1909 and 2005.

7. Nerd, hardcore.
Signs (especially country
signs)have always changed.

8. Long (1909/18)
The Sign Language: A
Manual of Signs

9. SCOTLAND. Bring the “5” hands
up in front, palms toward self, the
palm of the right hand resting
against the back of the left in such
a way that the fingers of both
hands cross at an angle
representing an “X;” let the hands
drop away toward the sides. Note
that the fingers when thus held
represent the plaid.
Long 1909

10. Long 1918 SCOTLAND. Bring the “5” hands up in front,
palms toward self, the palm of the right hand
resting against the back of the left in such a
way that the fingers of both hands cross at an
angle representing an “X;” let the hands drop
away toward the sides. Note that the fingers
when thus held represent the plaid.
SCOTLAND. (2) Place back of
the extended right hand across
the left arm; draw it across and
then turning the hand over repeat,
representing plaids on arm.

11. Long 1918 SCOTLAND. Bring the “5” hands up in front,
palms toward self, the palm of the right hand
resting against the back of the left in such a
way that the fingers of both hands cross at an
angle representing an “X;” let the hands drop
away toward the sides. Note that the fingers
when thus held represent the plaid.
SCOTLAND. (2) Place back of
the extended right hand across
the left arm; draw it across and
then turning the hand over repeat,
representing plaids on arm.

12. Higgins (1923/42)
How to talk to the deaf;
the language of gestures, expression,
impersonation, pantomime or acting, used
by all people in all ages and everywhere

13. SCOTCH: Palms inward, open
fingers crossed, hands drawn
apart down to sides; or, tips of
right prone spread fingers along
left sleeve and then across to
indicate the plaid.
Higgins 1923

14. SCOTCH: Tips of right
prone spread fingers along
left sleeve and then across to
indicate the plaid.
Higgins 1942

15. SCOTLAND1
Long 1909/18
SCOTLAND2
Higgins 1923/42
SCOTLAND3
Riekehof 1963
SCOTLAND4
Humphries 1980
Evolution of SCOTLAND

16. SCOTLAND5
Fant 1983
SCOTLAND6
Smith 1989
SCOTLAND7
Valli 2006
Evolution of SCOTLAND

17. MEXICO2
Watson 1964
MEXICO1,4
Long 1909
Smith 1989
MEXICO5
Valli 2006
MEXICO3
Stokoe 1965
Evolution of MEXICO

18. Seriously, you’re a nerd. Seriously.
Great, so what sign am I
supposed to use now?

19. Robert Palella
2nd ASL Fest
Gallaudet University
(2007)

20. What do we see Deaf people doing with
“newer” country signs?
• Signs are not necessarily changing as a reaction
to so-called ‘political correctness’
• But other countries consider ASL’s use of their
indigenous sign as ‘respect;’ fosters a globalism
at international conferences and sporting events

21. What do we see Deaf people doing with
“newer” country signs?
• Some ASL signs have been/are perceived as
insulting, focused on physical characteristics
• Signs are being borrowed because signs for a
country may not be present in ASL
• Reduces the need for fingerspelling

22. What are some of the objections to using
“newer” country signs in ASL?
• “We already have a sign for a country; why replace it
with another (non-ASL, outsider?) sign?”
• Spoken languages do not use indigenous names
for other countries (do you say ‘Deutschland’ or
‘Germany,’ ‘Japan’ or ‘日本’?)

23. Potential framework for
identifying valid & reliable sign
variations & etymologies

24. vexillogical
Sign describes a physical, symbolic, or
conceptual characteristic of a nation’s flag

25. Vexillogical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

26. Vexillogical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

27. Vexillogical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

28. Vexillogical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

29. Vexillogical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

30. geographical
Sign describes a physical, topographic, or
geographical characteristic of a nation

31. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

32. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

33. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

34. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

35. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

36. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

37. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

38. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

39. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
area features area

40. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
shape geography area

41. Geographical country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
feature geography shape

42. ethnographical
Sign describes cultural, personal, or customal
characteristics of a nation or people
(food, history, arts/music, clothing, animals, personal features, weather,
military, transportation, linguistics, behaviors, religion, combinations)

43. transportation
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

44. military
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

45. animal life
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

46. music
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

47. history/politics
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

48. dance
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

49. food
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

50. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
music history clothing/music

51. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
history animal personal

52. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
weather clothingweather

53. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
personal clothing history

54. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
personal history

55. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
personal personal clothing

56. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
animals food personal

57. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
religion personal language

58. Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
music clothing clothing

59. military animal? history
Ethnographic country signs
(in Valli, 2005)

60. abbreviatory
Sign is pronounced by using the
initials of the nation’s (English) name
Ab
(how valid/reliable is this? does it work only for the English name?)

61. Abbreviatory country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
Ab

62. Abbreviatory country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
Ab
Smith, 1989

63. Abbreviatory country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
Ab

64. ?
arbitrary
Sign is pronounced seemingly by
none of the previous characteristics
(how valid/reliable is this? created in contact/for pidgins?)

65. Arbitrary country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
?

66. Arbitrary country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
?

67. Arbitrary country signs
(in Valli, 2005)
?

68. Wow. That’s a lot of signs.
Do Deaf people actually use all
of these “newer” signs?

69. 149 anonymous
Deaf signers
participated in a
two-part online
survey (2010)

70. • “Given the choice between two geographic/
country signs for the same country, which do
you tend to use?” (16 sign pairs)
• “Given this sign, which country does it refer to
(a, b, c, don't know, means something else)?”
(15 signs, mixture of common and obscure)
• Reasons for choosing country signs
• Gender, age, deafness label, schooling

71. What’d you find out, Nerd?

72. 1. Deaf adult signers, regardless of age or
schooling inconsistently use signs with which
they are comfortable:
• 9/16 (56%) “newer” signs were preferred
• SWEDEN2 and RUSSIA2 are preferred,
but not ENGLAND2 and GERMANY2
• Many pronunciation differences exist = how do
accurate signs stay accurate/get passed on?

73. 2. Many recent geographical/country
signs are mistaken for other similarly pronounced
ASL signs:
• “That sign (ENGLAND2) looks like the sign for
‘thermometer.’”
• “This sign (BANGLADESH) looks like ‘don’t want.’”
• ‘Cousin?’ (COLOMBIA)

74. What does this mean for
interpreters?

75. Resources

76. Facebook
Sign Language of the
Deaf World
Deaf signers rendering
indigenous country and
city signs

77. International
Country signs
spreadthesign.com
Deaf signers rendering
indigenous country signs in
various SL

78. doug.stringham.net/uvuasl
dstringham@gmail.com
@stringd
Thank you.