This question is probably silly, but knowing next to nothing about the subject matter… at hand, please bear with me:
Why do deaf people mouth the words when they do sign language? I’d say the most obvious answer would be to convey at least part of the message to someone who doesn’t know the language. But, correct me if I’m wrong, the deaf person, in so doing, tends to “skip” certain mouthed words.
On the other hand(!), I must admit I’ve never noticed if two deaf people talking to each other also mouth the words between themselves.
Deaf people do NOT move their mouths while signing to one another, in general. This is because English and ASL, for example, are entirely different languages and ASL does not map onto English.
Also, Deaf people using sign language are much more expressive of emotions with their bodies than speaking people (since they don’t have tone of voice to work with). Mouthing words impairs one’s interlocutor’s ability to read one’s face.
I have a bad habit of mouthing the words as I sign (I don’t sign at all fluently - I sign about as much as I speak German, which is very very little). If a sign language interpreter does move her mouth, it is presumably for the benefit of Deaf people who have been subjected to oral education and so lip-read better than they sign.
Caveat: my knowledge of deaf culture is marginal at best and i may have some of this wrong. But until Handy shows up, here is what I understand for what it’s worth.
I am accustomed to speaking as I sign because I am usually translating. Simultaneous communication (signing & speaking in unison) is very difficult because, as Matt mentioned, ASL doesn’t always map word-for-word to spoken English. You have to split your concentration and be articulate in two languages at the exact same time.
If I am signing to a deaf person only, I probably will not move my lips.
Deaf people mouth the words when they talk to other deaf people because it gives more communication. Sign language is not very specific & if you mouth the words you can specific what word you are saying even because one sign can be used for several words.
Some deaf people are deafened, like me, & its a habit of using our lips to talk too. If you try to sign & use your voice at the same time your brain often gets confused & you cant understand either, but Just signing & mouthing it seems to be okay.
It’s also a remnant of teaching deaf people to talk as they know what lips should do but may not be able to make those vocal sounds.
Deaf guys watching a football game sign to the tv & the players on tv. Now there is one that you can try to explain.
Well,Handy,mebee signing at the TV makes more sense than talking or yelling back at it.The TV can’t hear you anyway,and it doesn’t disturb other people as much. To be truly effective I guess you should close caption back at it. Speaking, or typing, of cheering for sports teams, there is a deaf kid on my son’s Jr. Hi soccer team.Pretty good player by the way, his family was in the stands the first game ,mom,pop, some syblings, they were cheering him on. HOLY smokes! a bunch a security types rush over because there is a rule against people in the stands using … yep, Gang Signs!!! It actually took some arguing to convince the cops what was going on. What was kinda funny was when ,in apologizing, the head honcho sez," Yeh, I guess we were kinda dumb." He imediatly realized what he said, but everybody concerned just laughed. It all got straight and now most of our side knows how to sign “Go team Go!” etc.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
Handy: slightly OT. Being that there seem to be two schools of thought on the matter, do you have any thoughts on cochlear implants for babies/young kids (and adults, for that matter)?
mr. john, yeah, one time a guy talking to me said to my sign interpreter ‘quit waving your hands around,you’re distracting him!’ lol.
omni, implant? What are they at now? 22 tones? Hmm, I was offered one when they were at only 2 tones. Frankly deafness is one of those handicaps people would rather not change. This is why you get a nasty look from deaf people sometimes when you suggest they get something to bring their hearing back.
Getting it back means all the sounds come in all at the same time, you cannot focus out the background sounds.
There is an older man at my work who was quite hard of hearing. You had to yell at him just to communicate. Then, he got new, more advanced hearing aids a couple of weeks ago. His world has changed dramtically. He can hear speech in normal volume, and there’s no need to yell.
What almost made me cry was when he told us how he spent an entire afternoon listening to the birds in his back yard. He said, “It’s the first time I’ve heard them sing. It’s beautiful.”
I’m not deaf, so I can’t possibly have the slightest clue about the life a deaf person leads. But, if there was a way that hearing could be restored, why do some people shy away from it?
I suppose the shock would be as great as if I were to lose my hearing. Perhaps that is why some don’t want to be able to hear. It’d flip their life upside down.
Handy: Were you born deaf? If not, when did you lose your hearing. I hope you aren’t offended by those questions. I think it would just help me (and all Dopers) have a better understanding of who you are.
The implant is only for those who are deaf because of some nerve thing. It does NOT restore hearing completely. It gives the person 22 tones, which is not quite enough for hearing voices is it? So use it with lip reading.
Your coworker probably got a regular hearing aid. They cost about $50 to make & sell for $3000 [rip off]. Age deafened people can benefit from those very easily.
As to why Im post-lingual-late-deafened adult [seems simpler to say ‘deaf’],50 doctors later of all types don’t know why. Anyway, I can hear, it just comes in all fuzzy, thus, an implant or an aid only makes it a loud fuzzy sound, which no one would want.
Figure Ill be deaf three times, once cause they don’t know, once from surfing too much [air conduction deafness, ‘surfers ear’] & once from old age. sigh