Friday, July 11, 2008

Is there sign language for "I've lost my voice"?

I have a really sore throat and it hurts to talk (and to whisper), so I was trying to get my errands done with as little talking as possible. It occurred to me that everyone in the world should learn the sign language for "Sorry, I've lost my voice." That would make things a lot easier.

Then I started wondering whether there IS sign language for such a thing. After all, people whose first language is Sign would never have to express that concept.

But it's really just a colourless green idea, isn't it? We can use English to express such concepts as "My telepathy isn't working very well today" or "I seem to be having technical difficulties with my time machine." So Sign should be able to express "I've lost my voice."

5 comments:

laura k said...

That's a great question.

When I was learning ASL (all of which I have now forgotten for lack of use), I found that most idioms did not translate. It was far more literal than English. So "I lost" would - I think - refer to physically losing something.

Perhaps the signer would say, "My throat hurts and I cannot talk". Deaf people do talk, they vocalize things.

This is pure conjecture, but based on a little bit of knowledge.

laura k said...

Something that may interest you.

impudent strumpet said...

Wow, I envy your being able to learn ASL at all. I tried and it was an epic fail! Turns out I'm a more auditory learner than I thought.

And thanks for that link - I came into work today to an inbox full of funny mistranslations, so now I have something to send back to people

laura k said...

Well thanks! I found it quite easy to learn, working with a deaf friend. I never got beyond the small-talk level - kind of where my Spanish is - but I did become much faster and more fluid as we went along. Also like my rudimentary Spanish, I was able to think in ASL for a time, which was so gratifying.

Then I lost touch with that friend (because he was an immature jerk), lost my incentive to sign, and lost all my ASL.

Pfft.

Glad you liked the link. You're the only translator I know!

Anonymous said...

I just curious ask you , I'm deaf if I lost all my ASL and they won't interested me can't signing??