I finally got a copy of the sign language dictionary I was in as a child. 
LION: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8509/8550198164_cc339c92cd_z.jpg
MONKEY: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8381/8549101761_521136584d_z.jpg
CORNFLAKES: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8513/8550207042_ab016321d6_z.jpg
It’s BSL, not ASL, although I imagine these signs are pretty international. I like how they got me to do animals and… cornflakes 
Cute!
The corn flakes thing does seem weirdly specific.
Adorable!
I wouldn’t mind owning that book. 
Thanks for sharing, Francesca.
That’s cute! I like the written descriptions.
Monkey is the same is ASL, but Lion’s different. peeking at other words… Corner’s the same. Library’s different. Meeting sounds different from the description (picture’s cut off). I read somewhere that ASL and BSL only have 25% mutual intelligibility in vocabulary.
Is there a signing version of Esperanto?
What I mean is, if BSL and ASL have that little mutual understanding, can’t a language be created for everyone.
Thus speaks the hearing ignorant person!
I thought the same thing. How would anyone know I didn’t mean Rice Krispies?
Oh and, awww…how cute you were!
No. I mean you could create one, but, like Esperanto, no one would use it.
There are language families for sign just like in spoken language. ASL and BSL aren’t in the same language family. ASL is descended from French sign and has a high level of mutual intelligibility with French sign as well as other sign languages in the French sign family. Polish and German sign are in the same family. etc.
In ASL, I don’t know of a sign specific to cornflakes only one for “breakfast cereal” (and then you would fingerspell the name if it was important), BUT it might be that in the time & place this book was written “cornflakes” and “breakfast cereal” were virtually synonymous in the spoken language.
Another thing is that proper nouns usually only get a name sign if it’s common enough to be generally needed. And because “generally needed” is subjective vocabulary can be quite localized. … I would not be at all surprised if there’s a specific name sign for most popular cereals… in use around Battle Creek, MI.
Just like we have vocabulary unique to certain regions and subcultures, in English. Language is, like, wicked complex, bless its heart.
The most common form I’ve seen, the proper noun is spelled out the first time and then used throughout the rest of the conversation. (My experience is observation of signers translating public events.)
I do note that even common nouns can vary considerably. At church, my friend taught me the sign they use for cool: A C and an L placed on opposite sides of your head, using your eyes to represent the Os. I mentioned it somewhere else and they laughed their head off, telling me that they just used the normal sign for the other meaning of cool. (The laughter was about how uncool that sign looks.)
And, no, I don’t actually sign. I was fascinated but undisciplined. I love languages but never take the time to learn them.
There is supposedly International Sign, used at world Deaf events (like the Deaflympics). Interpreters have told me it is basically ASL, though.
