Sign name

Sign name

In Deaf culture and sign language, a sign name is a special sign that is used to uniquely identify a person, just like a name. There are some special cultural rules around sign names; for example, they must be agreed upon by you and people in the Deaf community. This ensures that no one else in the community already has the same sign name, or that the same sign does not have a different meaning. Until a person receives a sign name, the person's name is usually fingerspelled.[1]

Contents

In different cultures

Different deaf cultures appear to have different customs around sign names. For example, amongst the Deaf American community, sign names are usually subdivided into two naming systems: descriptive (DNS) and arbitrary (ANS)[2]. The DNS system manually illustrates physical features, while the ANS system is the first letter of their English name applied to one or more locations. Though the location can sometimes have some implications (e.g. forehead/temple for male, chin/mouth for female), it is usually just a unique sign without other meaning.

In France only the DNS system is used.

In Britain or Japan, however, people can be named after the existing signs for something related to them.

References

  1. ^ BBC - Ouch! (disability) - Features - What's your Sign Name?
  2. ^ "The Book of Name Signs" by Samuel James Supalla

Further reading

  • Erting, Carol (1994). The Deaf Way. Washington: Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 1563680262. 

External links


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