Sign Languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

Reed, Lauren W.; Rumsey, Alan

doi:10.1075/z.226.se1

Cited by 2 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…I first sought to establish whether certain settlements in Nebilyer/Kaugel had high concentrations of deafness (a definitional feature of village sign languages), whether deaf people had contact with one another (a definitional feature of shared and communal homesign), and whether families had multiple deaf members (as do most family sign languages). Space restrictions preclude a profile of each signer (see Reed 2019:42–53). My conclusions are given below.…”

Section: Sociodemographic Profile Of Deaf People In Nebilyer/kaugelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to determine the degree of lexical similarity among Nebilyer/Kaugel sign languages, I created a pictorial elicitation task featuring 131 images of local phenomena including people, animals, and foodstuffs (see Reed 2019:56–57). A common approach to determining similarity vs. difference between sign languages is to compare sublexical phonological parameters of signs; namely, handshape, location, movement, and orientation (e.g.…”

Section: Lexical Similarity Among Nebilyer/kaugel Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two Port Moresby signers exhibit 36% to 52% consistency with any given Nebilyer/Kaugel signer. Using a permutation test, I established that the rate of consistency among Nebilyer/Kaugel signers is statistically significant, at the level of .048 (Reed 2019:76–79). That finding is visualised in Figure 12, which shows the results of a neighbour-joining analysis (using SplitsTree4) of the data in Table 1, indicating the relative degrees of lexical difference among the sign languages.…”

Section: Lexical Similarity Among Nebilyer/kaugel Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, both Kakuyl and Roberta are weakly tied to deaf men living in Ulka tribal country, whom they have never met. Roberta's hearing father, Joseph, is an Ulka man, and recalls being exposed to sign growing up by interacting with deaf men there (Reed 2019:84–88). When Joseph's daughter was born deaf, Joseph likely drew on this latent sign knowledge to sign with his daughter.…”

Section: The Regional Sign Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When Joseph's daughter was born deaf, Joseph likely drew on this latent sign knowledge to sign with his daughter. Joseph returns to Ulka country regularly to carry out family obligations, and sees these deaf men there (Reed 2019:109–10). As such, Roberta is linked to the Ulka deaf men, despite never having met them.…”

Section: The Regional Sign Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea

Reed

2021

Lang. Soc.

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The sociodemographic typology of sign languages classifies them based on the characteristics and configurations of their users. When considering homesign and sign languages in rural areas, this typology needs further refinement. Here, I present new concepts to enable this. The study is based on fieldwork with twelve deaf people in Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and review of studies worldwide. Sign language communities can be mapped as sign networks. Using this mapping, I propose a new typological category for languages with one central deaf user and many fluent hearing signers: nucleated network sign language. I use sign base analysis to determine lexical consistency between unconnected deaf signers in Western Highlands. The high level of consistency among largely unconnected deaf people is explained by a regional sign network connecting deaf and hearing signers. This research emphasises the role of both deaf and hearing signers in sign language emergence and maintenance. (Sign languages, social networks, sign networks, typology, homesign, rural sign languages, Papua New Guinea)*

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Section: Sociodemographic Profile Of Deaf People In Nebilyer/kaugelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lexical Similarity Among Nebilyer/kaugel Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lexical Similarity Among Nebilyer/kaugel Sign Languagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Regional Sign Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Regional Sign Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea

Reed

2021

Lang. Soc.

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Sampling Signers in Providence Island: Reflections on a Small-Scale Documentation Project

Omardeen

2021

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Providence Island Sign Language is an indigenous sign language of Colombia, used in the Caribbean Island of Providence (Spanish: Providencia). First described in the 1960s and 1970s, the sign language has received little follow up research. In this paper I introduce a small-scale documentation project of PISL that began in 2019 and is ongoing. I describe the aim, methods and output of this project and reflect on data collection, particularly with respect to sampling members of the language community. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussions around best practices in sign language documentation, by adding a case study focused on sampling in a micro-community sign language.

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Sign Languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands

Cited by 2 publications

References 72 publications

Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea

Sign networks: Nucleated network sign languages and rural homesign in Papua New Guinea

Sampling Signers in Providence Island: Reflections on a Small-Scale Documentation Project

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