Metasemiotic Regimentation in the Standardization of Nepali Sign Language

By Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway

Both the linguistic forms attended to and the ways in which they are linked to the social vary within and across language standardization projects. In addition, it cannot be assumed that people will notice the same indexical connections between linguistic forms and social structures or rationalize them in the same ways. An analysis of the project to standardize Nepali Sign Language highlights the fact that it is therefore necessary to account for the processes by which standardization projects attempt to reduce variation not only in the formal properties of language but also in the wider semiotic interpretations of those forms.

Example 1

Because of the importance of protecting the privacy of my research participants, I have served as a model signer in reenactments of the signing (and speaking) in the two transcripts featured in the article.  While my efforts necessarily fail to convey the ethnographic context of these classroom performances, I hope they will assist readers in understanding the formal properties of signed communication in Nepal’s Deaf institutions.

– Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway

Transcript 1

The transcript is in two sections. The first contains an English gloss of NSL appears in capital letters, followed by an English translation. When a classifier is used in the transcript it is marked with a CL preceded by an initial that marks the number or letter shape (in the Devanagari fingerspelling alphabet) the classifier most resembles. The second transcript conveys the formal properties of the manual channel using Sutton Signwriting (SSW). This portion is written in lanes that can be read top to bottom and then left to right. The lanes allow better representation of the use of signing space.  Each transcript is numbered for comparison.

NSL:

1. JHANKRI.
Jhankri.
2. VILLAGE YOU-PLURAL SICK MEDICAL-DOCTOR, MEDICINE ISN’T.
In the village when you are sick, there are no doctors or medicine.
3. JHANKRI GCL:EXORCISES-YOU, GCL:EXORCISES-ME.
The jhankri exorcises you, like this.
4. YOU-PLURAL UNDERSTAND?
Do you understand?
5. SEEN? SEEN YOU-PLURAL?
You’ve seen this?
6.1CL:BANGS-ON-DRUM, 5CL:WEARS-FEATHERED-HEADRESS.
He bangs on a drum and wears a feathered headdress.
7. UNDERSTAND?
Do you understand?
8. SAME.
It’s the same.

Example 2

Transcript 2

The transcript is in three sections. The first contains an English translation of the teacher’s utterances. The second includes a gloss of the manual channel (in capitals), the spoken Nepali channel (in italics). The third transcript conveys the formal properties of the manual channel using Sutton Signwriting (SSW).  Each transcript is numbered for comparison. The SSW script is written from the receptive viewpoint and in vertical lanes that better show the use of signing space.

English translation (In translating the teacher’s utterances, when the spoken and signed channels differ I have translated the spoken. I have done so because the teacher has better control of this channel and therefore it may better reflect the information she intends to communicate):

1. Teacher: (pointing to a picture of a cow) Do you all have this in your house?
2. Student: Yes.
3. Teacher: You have this in the house? No.
4. Teacher: City houses don’t have a place for cows.
5. Student: Village.
6. Teacher: The village, yes. In the village each person’s house has a cow.
7. Teacher: What does the cow give to us?
8. Student: Grass.
9. Teacher: Grass from the cow?
10. Student: Milk.
11.Teacher: Bravo!

English gloss transcription: An English gloss of the signed channel appears in capitals, while the spoken Nepali channel is in italics. A blank space within an utterance indicates that the channel was not used.

Teacher’s spoken channel	Teacher’s signed channel	Students’ channel (all signed)
1. Yo timiharu ko ghar maa chaa?	(Indicating a picture of a cow) 1. THIS YOU-PLURAL PLURAL POSESSIVE HOUSE IN IS THIS?
		2. YES
3. Chha, ghar maa? Chhaina.	3. YOU-ALL HOUSE THIS ISN’T.
4. Sahar ko ghar maa gai basne tau chhaina.	4. CITY HOUSE IN MILK COW LIVE PLACE ISN’T.
		5. VILLAGE
6. Gau ho. Gau, gau aphno aphno ghar maa gai chha.	6. VILLAGE GO, OWN OWN HOUSE COW IS.
7. Yo gai le haami, haami laai ke dinchha?	7. THIS WE- WE TO WHAT GIVE THIS?
		8. GRASS
9. Gai le ghas ho?
		10. MILK
11. Shabaash!	11. THANK-YOU YES.

Click here to view the Sutton Signwriting transcript (teacher’s utterances only).

A brief key to reading Sutton SignWriting transcripts appears in an
appendix to the article. For a
complete guide to reading and writing Sutton SignWriting, please visit: http://
www.signwriting.org/lessons/lessonsw/lessonsweb.html

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