Loris-baby#1 * and I were watching a children's television program with sign language today. I was struck by the similarity of the 'teddy bear' gesture to a pose that gangsta rappers often assume. In fact rappers seem to strike a lot of poses; I wonder if they're signing seperate songs to the deaf.
I think someone who knows sign-language should translate their postures and add subtitles to rapper's videos for the hearing population.
* #2 arrived on the 15th.-- Loris, Jan 18 2010 Sign language rapper does Eminem's "don't lose yourself" http://www.youtube....watch?v=dv1rTnVrN1gLoses a bit in video compression, still rather impressive. [jutta, Jan 19 2010] Black ASL at Gallaudet University http://blackaslproj...roject/Welcome.htmlResearching the answer to MikeD's question. [jutta, Jan 19 2010] Congratulations on a population-neutral reproductive yield.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 18 2010 "Congratulations on a population-neutral reproductive yield." How do you know she's not budding these things? Enough! Enough, I say! Save the rap videos for us old folk. Babies shouldn't be watching that stuff anyway.-- phoenix, Jan 19 2010 I agree. No parent wants their child to grow up to be a hoochie-mamma.-- Jscotty, Jan 19 2010 Bit of a waste of time really. All the postures and gestures made by rappers suggest just one phrase - I'm a tit.[+]-- gnomethang, Jan 19 2010 Congratulations-- zeno, Jan 19 2010 It would be especially good if they were saying wholesome messages like "eat your greens", "crime does not pay" and "respect for women does not make you weak in any way".
So I would suggest that you define these moves with those kinds of meanings, popularise them and voila! the idea will be baked.-- Aristotle, Jan 19 2010 but in which sign language?
Sign languages in different countries evolved separately and are not mutually understandable.-- prufrax, Jan 19 2010 Well, how about the same language that they're singing in?
The term "Ghetto Sign Language" (GSL) has been thrown about jokingly a bit. I'd certainly appreciate the subtitles, both for spoken words and for signing.-- jutta, Jan 19 2010 //same language that they're singing in//
Is there an ebonics version of sign language? What subtle changes in hand and arm signals are required to turn "with" into "wid" or "south" into "sowf"?-- MikeD, Jan 19 2010 Unsurprisingly, there are regional and ethnic variations, yes, especial under the influence of segregated education (and hence now fading). The sociolinguist James Woodward started doing some research on that in 1976 and published on "black southern signing"; you could look for papers who cite that and branch out from there.-- jutta, Jan 19 2010 sign language is grammatically unrelated to spoken language, so they can't sign in the same language they are singing in.
American English and British English are mutually understandable, british sign language and american sign language are not and in fact belong to different linguistic families.-- prufrax, Jan 19 2010 ASL finger signing lacks capital letters, for example, which meant that the UK deaf debate about being "Deaf with a capital D" was much harder for Americans to discuss when they heard about it. Apparently the "capital D" sign was adopted from the other side of the Atlantic into ASL for this purpose.-- Aristotle, Jan 19 2010 // sign language is grammatically unrelated to spoken language, so they can't sign in the same language they are singing in.
Yeah, I was being flippant, sorry. The meaning I wanted you to infer was "the sign language dialect spoken in the geographic and, by extension, socio-economical and ethnic region that the language they sing in is spoken in." In other words, the problem of not being mutually understandable is not restricted to sign language, and the mechanisms of solving the problem for spoken language probably work just as well for sign language.-- jutta, Jan 19 2010 Or we could just ask the rappers not to wiggle about so much.
Then they'd be able to concentrate properly on the lyrics and tune.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 19 2010 random, halfbakery