This week I was looking at the the topic on Mãori Language Week under Facebook, medias and one of the interpreters raised awareness on Deaf Mãori Sign Language for the education, services and the need of more Mãori interpreters in New Zealand. There had been a few more articles by the World Federation for the Deaf and British Deaf Assoication linked to the United Nations in regarding the Government and the non profit organisations changing or cutting back the services for the Deaf community. How can we explain or raise more awareness in our Deaf Sign language to them?? How can we explain to any literacy tutors/teachers/businesses that many Deaf people’s first language is NZSL, not English in written language? I know that many people out there does not realise or understand very little about our Deaf culture and language. Our NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) became officially language after passing the Bills in our New Zealand Government in 2006. Now we have 3 languages in NZ – Mãori, English and NZSL.
As a deaf linguistic myself, I studied and learnt more in the research materials, books and video from the worldwide through my University degree. Now I am currently researching and collecting materials for the community. The language are universal and language comes in many different ways such as writing, spoken, sign language, body gesture and picture language. People usually says their language is their first language and we call native language, mother tongue or arterial language under sociolinguistic identify. For example the first writing language dated back around 2690BC and it was Egyptian – Egyptian hieroglyphs in the tombs of Seth-Peribsen in the 2nd Dynasty, Umm ei-Qa’abi. Looking at the sign language, the possible first sign language that had been record from the fifth century BC, was Plato’s Cratylus where Socrates says “If we hadn’t a voice or a tongue and wanted to express things to one another, wouldn’t we try to make signs by moving our hands, head and the rest of our body, just as dumb people do at present?” Sign language/body language were the first step before spoken from an early child because any child has the ability to develop a way of communicate to their parents. I recalled one child came from a Deaf parent and this child picked up around 250 signs of word and less than 65 spoken words a year.
People often asks me “is sign language are the same with the rest of the countries?” Simple answer was ‘no’. It is a universal language where one person in NZ, speaks different to another person in Spain e.g. a word for stone – pledra in Spanish word, or a word for land – tierra. If a French person speaks for ‘a small rock’ as in pierre (f) or in callou (m) and a ‘land’ as in terre (earth, clay, soil) even the best describe french word is terrain as in land. Let look at Somalia language – land and ‘dhulka’ or ‘wadan’ and ‘dhul’ and a word for rock (there is no word for stone under Somalia) for ‘dhagax’. Somalia language is similar to Egyptian language according to one of the linguistists because in the Somalia stories, it tells about the ancestors were slaves.
Here is another example from the Mãori Deaf community and they are learning to use sign language by using Mãori words. click on the link…..
Think of a group with different people who don’t or familiar understand English as one. Let says Person A is fully English with excellent grammar and speaking etc, person B understand person A reasonable well but have a different understanding in grammar, then person C does not have full understand English in both ways grammar or speaking and the last person D does not understand at all, but receive limit of understanding in English or receive trouble hearing the sound when Person A, B speaking. Person A and B would not understand or familiar with Person D at all.
I came across many people who does not realised the sounds “C” and “K” when speaking. I learnt this one during my University. When you speak “C” and it has no sound at the back of the vocal cord, only the tongue shape movement. When you speak “K” and it has sound as a click/puff sound at the back of the vocal cord and sharp breath. A person who is Deaf and this Deaf person will sign “K” or “C” in finger spell. These two finger spell signs are easy to notice for anyone such as in Catherine or Katherine.
Lip pattern are the worst off for many Deaf people when they are lip reading and someone will says ‘pull’ and “Paul’. These lip patterns shows us a mouth shape as round lip but the sounds are very similar. There are more sounds/mouth/lip patterns similar to words like ‘here’, ‘hare’ and ‘hair’.
More to come……….
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