Re: IMLD, 2/21/05: Braille & sign languages

i18n@... wrote:

>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > Of course it is. English is a spoken language, and deaf children cannot
> > hear a spoken language.
>
> Peter,
>
> Since you seem so tough on everyone else's precision in the use of their
> language, I have to ask you this:
>
> If English is a "spoken language" as opposed to a "written language" or
> "signed language", or perhaps simultaneously more then one of them, what
> language, if any, are we communicating in right now?

You're not suggesting, are you, that you learned Written English without
first learning Spoken English?

When you ask a deaf child to learn English, you're asking them to learn
an utterly alien tongue that has nothing to do with their native
language.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...