[Magdalen] signing the mass

[Scott Knitter]

I watch the German nightly news show Tagesschau whenever I can, and it's
possible to watch a signed version in German sign language
(Gebärdensprache). It's of course different from signed versions of other
languages, and it's weird-looking (IMO)! Some shades of meaning are
imparted by facial gestures including wide eyes and puffing up the cheeks.
The thing is, puffing up the cheeks doesn't have much to do with the
meaning (it doesn't signify "fat" or "playing a tuba." I think it's like
facial punctuation. They also do a lot more with
happy/sad/positive/negative facial expressions, which is pretty standard,
but the result is that a pretty humdrum news story looks rather
melodramatic if you're watching the signer.

It also doesn't go literally through a sentence, word for word. Generally
there are three main signs per sentence, for subject, verb, and object
(tricky because that's not always the word order in German, and you have to
wait for the verb at the end of the sentence).

On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 12:57 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Florida School for the Deaf is in St. Augustine,
> and sign language is a second language hereabouts.
> Yesterday the bagger at Publix was signing with the
> customer ahead of me in line. But he wasn’t deaf,
> just bilingual (or however you’d characterize his ability).
>
> St. Anastasia’s is offering a class to teach us how to
> sign the mass. That is, the responses. I am psyched.
> The nascent choreographer in me is doubly psyched.
> Will let you know how it goes.
> -M
>



-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA