And for that matter, do the deaf have poetry? And if so, would it have to do with the fluidity of the hand movements?
There absolutely is poetry, beautiful poetry. There is word play, and there are ways of doing things like repeating hand shapes of movements in one sign after another, that are like rhymes, alliteration, or assonance, but it’s impossible to say “same handshape = rhyme,” “same movement = alliteration,” “same directionality = assonance.” It doesn’t work like that. But all those things do create rhythm and connections and emphasis, and “stanzas” that can be analyzed as parts of the poem-- they are more like movements in a musical piece, though.
Repetition of facial expressions is another way of creating the same kinds of connections that rhyme, meter, alliteration and assonance give spoken language poetry.
ASL poetry has meter, sometimes powerful meter, sometimes subtle. It’s created by the poet’s stylized movement. Some people choose to move more naturally, and rely on “hand pictures” to create images-- this is more like free verse, although it transcends anything that spoken-words free verse can accomplish. Other poets may sign at a staccato clip, or some other beat appropriate to what they are trying to communicate, and this is more like metered verse.
There’s “ronde” poetry, where a sign has a handshape, movement, and direction, and then the direction is repeated with a new handshape, and evolving movement, retaining the handshape and going in a different direction or staying still-- etc., repetition, and retention, morphing the signs into one another instead of abruptly changing them, and ending back with the original sign.
It’s a whole 'nother world. I feel so lucky that I can understand it.
I see. Thanks! This is one of those questions that I ponder from time to time. There are lots of deaf street vendors here, and I often see them chatting with each other. There’s a corner of the food court in MBK shopping center that deaf people usually occupy, and it’s interesting to watch them converse. I often wonder about word play and such.
A short video that might be of interest. I personally found it fascinating. YouTube “Awti Answers: Rhyme in ASL”.
Dave
No knowledge to contribute, but what a great question (and beautiful answer). Thanks guys!
Not particularly relevent to anything, but the first demonstration of video conferencing I ever saw was a couple of deaf teenagers signing across a link at a trade show. I’m sure they weren’t part of the trade stand, and weren’t being paid, but it was an increadably memorable demonstration, because the hall was so noisy that it was all but impossible to communicate by talking.
Isn’t it more or less what mimes have been doing all along?, except without the use of a formal language.
I’m with ruadh. Fascinating!
Not sure what you mean, especially since sign language is a formal language. As such, it has much, much more to it than pantomime.
From me too
What I meant is that mime’s don’t use a formal language, and have been using some of the techniques of expression that RivkahChaya described for conveying emotion in ASL poetry.
I’d be interesting in seeing this in action, I’m an animator and it would be interesting.
Not to hijack, but maybe you would know since you say you are animator,
Have there been any animations (for entertainment) that rely on sign language rather than closed-caption?
I hope I phrased that correctly.
I’ve studied and used ASL for decades, but I am not fully fluent. However, there have been times when nearly everything signed seemed like poetry to me.
It’s at least as beautiful.
p.s. this is a great topic.
Well, no. Although, there have been Deaf mimes. One famous one was Bernard Bragg, who studied under Marcel Marceau, and would probably be the first to tell you that ASL poetry and mime are not the same thing. Bragg was not a poet, and the best poets and story-tellers have not been formally trained as mimes.
Go to youtube, and look up “Dandelion” by Clayton Valli (I had him for a prof. at Gallaudet, and he is a brilliant man and a great lecturer, and very funny, but not a mime). I’m not providing a link, because there are a couple of different postings of it, and at least one won’t run on my browser.
If you don’t know sign, you probably won’t get a lot of sense of it, but you will still be able to see that it has a rhythm, and pattern of repetition that makes it different from a signed conversation.
This is an interesting topic.
Thanks to the OP and all responses!
Wow. Very poignant and instructive.
Thanks. It makes me want to go out and learn this language.
ETA to RivkahChaya:
Despite knowing nothing but the title and not knowing sign language, it think I got the story.
I am by all means not a poetry fan, but communication come in all forms.
Thanks for sharing.
Wouldn’t MANY oral songs by a rhyme ,so to speak - is it more of a hand dance ? , in sign ?
The songs with mostly chorus, with repeat words in the chorus… like “Rock the Casbah”. or Born in the USA or something.
I suppose with braile could use write a 5 words by 5 lines poem… to make a smiley face ?