꒱ ︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶ HOW TO ROLEPLAY SIGN LAUNGAGE . 1 - Disclaimer . 2 - Introduction . 3 - What is Big-D vrs Little-d deafness? . 4 - Grammar . 5 - Common mistakes I see . 6 - Outro —— —͙ – - . 1 - Disclaimer : I am not fully deaf, I am hard of hearing / little-d deaf, if someone who if Deaf (big-d) wants to correct me feel free , I do not rely on ASL anymore ! I cannot force you to use this! I do not expect everyone to want to change their ways! This is made for a silly scratch rolelplay! Its okay!! —— —͙ – - . 2 - Introduction Hello ! I am Den / Caden ! I was raised with a mom who was little-d deaf, so from a young age I was taught basic sign, as I got older my hearing also worsened. I am thankful enough that I do not need aid to hear, however to be safe (as the doctors say I do have a chance for it to worsen) I continued my education of sign! I currently know ASL and can communicate decently well. While I am not fluent yet, I have been learning for more than 6+ years! I often get annoyed when I see people roleplaying using sign incorrectly, as it shows they did not research how sign is used, rather how being deaf/HOH impacts the being itself. I personally hate when I see people misuse sign, as for a while I did rely on it (again, thankfully I do not rely on any form of aids, including asl.) Sign is so important to me because of my past struggles (see the previous wall of text LOL), so I want to educate others! —— —͙ – - . 3 - What is Big-D vrs Little-d deafness? In simple terms big-D Deafness refers to someone who was born without hearing or lost their hearing before they learned a spoken language, while little-d deafness refers to someone who is either hard of hearing/not fully Deaf OR someone who lost their hearing after knowing a spoken language. In less simple terms, Deafness is a cultural identity, not a disability, however deafness is not a cultural identity, and IS a considered a disability. Why is this important you ask? For a long time people didn't understand why Deaf people needed aid, but did not want to considered disabled. Up until 1998, many schools didn't think Deaf students were able to do many things "normal" (hearing or deaf students) could because of their lack of verbal speech. It took two weeks (iirc without pulling out my notes 13 days(?)) of protesting for a Deaf president at Gallaudet University AFTER the Deaf boy won the vote. Summing up that WALL of text, Deafness is not a disability, rather a culture. Deaf people were raised to know and understand SL, and ASL is considered its own language, not an aid for English. (just as someone who is Hispanic, and needs translation from English to Spanish wouldn't be considered disable or using an aid FOR a disability because of said translations.) —— —͙ – - . 4 - Grammar OKAY getting somewhere SUPER fun. I love the grammar of ASL !! ASL uses Object-Subect-Verb (OSV) instead of: "I see the big orange cat" it would be: "big orange cat I see" Object is big orange cat, subject is the speaker, verb is see. for more complex sentances we can also boil it down to listing out the object, subject, and verb, then placing them in this order. HOwever, if a sentance doesn't have a true object, then you can eithr drop words, or leave it be, though that is not correct. example: " I stayed home because it was raining" you could make it OSV by saying "home I stayed because it was raining. (though technically the pattern waas SVA (subject verb adverbial) we still are able to make it fit closely to a SVO pattern, then simplifing it into a OSV BUTT this is all stuff you dont need to know for it to work) IN SUMMARY from that wall of text (tho i do suggest reading it) basically talk like yoda would, like.. highkey thats kind it? Yoda talks in a OSV format —— —͙ – - . 5 - Common mistakes I see Just saying "x signed" instead of typing it out is!! kinda ableists!! Boiling down a language to simply saying "x said in Spanish: this is clearly English" isn't really that amazing. Deaf people have their own culture, and deaf people need sign as a way to communicate. I think a better way to sign irp is saying something along the lines of, "Moving examplepaws front paw they quickly draw a circle around their chest, before looking apologetic, signing 'sorry'" (you can simply say basic actions, don't try and get into handsigns and stuff, it gets complex quickly..) —— —͙ – - . 6 - Outro AGAIN im not gonna cry if you didn't read this all! or if you did and chose to ignore it! It IS your life, just as someone who is HOH and DID at some point rely on SL, I wanted to share my two cents! thanks for reading ! Hurrah —— —͙ – - art / desc by ꒱ ︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶︶
