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Abbreviations
A lesson was learned by the writer as to the
abbreviation of signs, and the possibility of discovering
the original meaning of those most obscure, from the
attempts of a Cheyenne to convey the idea of old man.
He held his right hand forward, bent at elbow, fingers and
thumb closed sidewise. This not conveying any sense, he
found a long stick, bent his back, and supported his frame
in a tottering step by the stick held, as was before only
imagined. Here at once was decrepit age dependent on a
staff. The principle of abbreviation or reduction may be
illustrated by supposing a person, under circumstances
forbidding the use of the voice, seeking to call attention
to a particular bird on a tree, and failing to do so by mere
indication. Descriptive signs are resorted to, perhaps
suggesting the bill and wings of the bird, its manner of
clinging to the twig with its feet, its size by seeming to
hold it between the hands, its color by pointing to objects
of the same hue; perhaps by the action of shooting into a
tree, picking up the supposed fallen game, and plucking
feathers. These are continued until understood, and if one
sign or combination of signs proves to be successful it will
be repeated on the next occasion by both persons engaged,
and after becoming familiar between them and others will be
more and more abbreviated. Conventionality in signs largely
consists in the form of abbreviation which is agreed upon.
When the signs of the Indians have from ideographic form
thus become demotic, they may be called conventional, but
still not arbitrary. In them, as in all his actions, man had
at the first a definite meaning or purpose, together with
method in their subsequent changes or modifications.
Colonel Dodge gives a clear account of the manner in which
an established sign is abbreviated in practice, as follows:
"There are an almost infinite number and variety of
abbreviations. For instance, to tell a man to 'talk,' the
most common formal sign is made thus: Hold the right hand in
front of, the back near, the mouth, end of thumb and
index-finger joined into an 'O,' the outer fingers closed on
the palm; throw the hand forward sharply by a quick motion
of the wrist, and at the same time flip forward the
index-finger. This may be done once or several times.
"The formal sign to 'cease' or 'stop doing' anything is made
by bringing the two hands open and held vertically in front
of the body, one behind the other, then quickly pass one
upward, the other downward, simulating somewhat the motion
of the limbs of a pair of scissors, meaning 'cut it off.'
The latter sign is made in conversation in a variety of
ways, but habitually with one hand only.
"The formal sign to 'stop talking' is first to make the
formal sign for 'talk,' then the formal sign for 'cut;' but
this is commonly abbreviated by first making the formal sign
for 'talk' with the right hand, and then immediately passing
the same hand, open, fingers extended, downward across and
in front of the mouth, 'talk, cut.'
"But though the Plains Indian, if asked for the sign to
'stop talking,' will properly give the sign either in its
extended or abbreviated form as above, he in conversation
abbreviates it so much further that the sign loses almost
all resemblance to its former self. Whatever the position of
the hand, a turn of the wrist, a flip of the forefinger, and
a turn, of the wrist back to its original position is fully
equivalent to the elaborate signs."
It may be added that nearly every sign which to be
intelligibly described and as exhibited in full requires the
use of both hands, is outlined, with one hand only, by
skillful Indians gesturing between themselves, so as to be
clearly understood between them. Two Indians, whose blankets
are closely held to their bodies by the left hand, which is
necessarily rendered unavailable for gesture, will severally
thrust the right from beneath the protecting folds and
converse freely. The same is true when one hand of each
holds the bridle of a horse.
The Italian signs are also made in such abbreviated forms as
to be little more than hinted at, requiring a perfect
knowledge of the full and original form before the slight
and often furtive suggestion of it can be understood.
Deaf-mutes continually seek by tacit agreement to shorten
their signs more and more. While the original of each may be
preserved in root or stem, it is only known to the
proficient, as the root or stem of a plant enables
botanists, but no others, to distinguish it. Thus the
natural character of signs, the universal significance which
is their peculiarly distinctive feature, may and often does
become lost. From the operation of the principle of
independent and individual abbreviation inherent in all sign
language, without any other cause, that of the Indians must
in one or two generations have become diverse, even if it
had in fact originated from one tribe in which all
conceptions and executions were absolute.
Indian Sign
Language
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Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
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