A LEXICAL DATABASE of KENYAN SIGN LANGUAGE Table 1. HAND CONFIGURATION Hope E. Morgan • University of California San Diego • [email protected] number of hands main articulator (primary), handshape symmetry movement symmetry SignType (Battison) geometry of the two hands ‘Digging into Signs’ Workshop; UCLondon, March 30 - April 1, 2015 1 secondary articulator same simultaneous X mirror end-stacked; tips same 2 hand different simult; connected 0 mirror; alternating end-stacked; tips opposite 1 or 2 hand (stiff wrist) same, same simult; h2 stationary 0/X mirror; alternating; asymmetric end-stacked; tips perpendicular forearm different, same alternating 1 mirror; offset adjacent; ranked prox-dist This poster presents an ongoing project to code the lexical prop- METHODS: arm same, different H2 stationary 2 mirror; asymmetric perpendicular plane head complex 3 stacked; tips same same plane; adjacent; tips perpindicular erties of signs in Kenyan Sign Language (KSL)* including pho- Participants: 28 deaf signers in total, though the majority face 3-minimal stacked; tips opposite h2 base eyes 3-move stacked; tips perpendicular h1 under h2 netic, phonemic, iconic, semantic, grammatical, and etymologi- of signs were produced by 3 signers mouth 4 stacked; facing; tips same n/a cal, with the focus here on phonetic properties. The ultimate author tongue C stacked; facing; tips opposite Coder: teeth unsure stacked; facing; tips perpendicular future goal is to link these lexical records to a full corpus of KSL. Language genres: (1) elicitation of citation forms by author whole body stacked; opposite facing; tips perpendicular with deaf Kenyan participant, (2) dyadic exchanges be- upper body side-stacked; tips same The database was created in FileMaker Pro, allowing for maxi- clothes side-stacked; tips opposite tween deaf Kenyans doing communiative tasks, (3) group not sure side-stacked; tips perpendicular mum flexibility during coding (see data entry screen in Fig. 1). conversations among deaf Kenyans, which contained a few This flexibility allowed phonetic categories to emerge organically spontaneous narratives (4). during the coding process, though it also resulted in a prolifera- tion of possible values. Currently, a phonemic analysis is under- BASIC LEXICAL TYPES IN DATABASE: Table 2. HANDSHAPE way to identify the core contrastive features and understand the • Non-compound signs: 1,864 formational organization of KSL signs at a more abstract level. • Compound signs: ~500 dominant HS name, dominant HS HamNoSys, • Fingerspellings/abbreviations: 13 non-dom HS name non-dom HS HamNoSys joint change Tables 1-6 show the main phonological domains: Hand configu- • Unsure: 27 1 open>close ration (Table 1), Handshape (Table 2), Handshape features (Table 1-curved close>open 4 curve>close 3), Orientation (Table 4), Location (Table 5), and Movement (Table A open>curve * This data is from a variety of Kenyan Sign Language used in a Luo- 6). Within each domain, the phonetic features appear here as list A-thumb bend speaking area of western Kenya: south Nyanza province. A signifcant A-thumb-lax straighten headers in bold (e.g., “number of hands” in Table 1) are repre- proportion of the items in this database are believed to be shared B flatten sent individual fields in the database. The feature values in each across the country, but anecdotally, local variants exist and a dialectal baby-o rubbing survey of KSL remains to be done. bent flutter field are listed underneath (e.g., “1”, “2”, “1 or 2”). bent-1 spreading bent-H twisting bent-i pivoting bent-L open>close>open bent-thumb unsure bent-V C Table 4. ORIENTATION C (grip) h1 absolute orientation, claw h1 dynamic h1 dynamic h1 relative orientation finger orientation claw-narrow relative orientation h2 absolute orientation absolute orientation claw-taper ulnar [pinky] closed-claw n/a up down>up up>in none contra>in dynamic/prosodic up>out palm closed-G prone>supine down down>out up>out out>in contra>out up up>down tips cupped supine>prone in down>in up>down out>back contra>up down out>up back curved bidirectional out down>contra up>back out>up contra>down in/back out>down radial [thumb] D back>palm contra down>ipsi up>ipsi out>down contra>ipsi out contra/ipsi>out root E palm>back ipsi in>up down; up out>contra ipsi>contra contra relative to bodypart palm&tips [figure out] E-fist radial>ulnar diagonal in>out down; contra down>up tracing ipsi relative to object palm; back F ulnar>radial diagonal (out/contra) in>down down; ipsi down>out trill contra/ipsi (2-hands) morpho variation back; palm fist signers vary diagonal (out/ipsi) in>contra up; down down>in dynamic (minimal) contra/up (2-hands) n/a ulnar<>radial fist-stacked tracing out>in in>ipsi in; contra down>contra relative to bodypart ipsi/contra (2-hands) palm<>back flat arc path out>up in>down in; ipsi in>up relative to object out/up (2-hands) back<>palm flat-o other out>down contra>down relative to bodypart in>down morpho variation out/ipsi (2-hands) tips<>root flat-o-curved out>contra contra>in relative to object in>out up/ipsi (2-hands) arm exterior flat-tense out>ipsi ipsi>in morpho variation in>contra up/out (2-hands) arm interior flat-thumb ipsi>out signers vary in>ipsi diagonal: contra/ipsi (2-hands) thumb pad G ipsi>up n/a up>in mixed (2-hands) unsure H ipsi>down up>out ipsi>contra unsure (dynamic) H-thumb up>down contra>ipsi unsure (circle/arc) H-thumb-closed up>contra unsure: two values i signers vary K n/a (no path) L Figure 1. Data entry screen showing sample record: “RABUON” #1333 lax mid-bend N Table 5. LOCATION N-straight namibia Minor Area 1a, O Major Area 1, open Minor Area 1b, open-curved Major Area 2 Minor Area 2 Symmetry 2 Sequential locations Setting change Path Plane Contact Type Proximity H1 handpart contact Contact type open-E 2LOC NS: mid/unmarked shoulder H2: fingertips ipsi yes ipsi>contra Midsagittal: in/out begin contact thumb, tip [repeated in open-G NEUTRAL SPACE (plane) NS: high over shoulder H2: back contra no contra>ipsi Vertical: up/down end proximity only thumb, interior Movement] open-spray H2 NS: low upper arm: exterior H2: palm ipsi, contra high>low Horizontal: side/side grazing/middle no contact thumb, radial open-thumb HEAD NS: over shoulder upper arm: interior H2: finger interior contra, ipsi low>high Diagonal: continuous radial, full R NECK NS: setting change mid arm: exterior H2: finger exterior center prox>dist Tracing double radial, interior full S TRUNK face elbow: exterior H2: fingers, exterior, closed hand symmetric (2hands) dist>prox Around body part holding heel small-C ARM top of head elbow: interior H2: between fingers asymmetric cntr>periph variable: to person, obj, loc bounce root snap (dynamic) WRIST temple/crown lower arm: exterior H2: ulnar full asymmetric (2hands) periph>cntr other begin & end back, whole T LEG side of face lower arm: interior H2: ulnar finger variable front>rear unsure 2/3 end back, center teeny-C NS/HEAD forehead whole arm: exterior H2: ulnar heel unsure rear>front 2/3 begin back, fingers Thumb-in-fist NS/H2 eye wrist: interior H2: index, radial rubbing 1/2 end wrist, interior uganda nose wrist: exterior H2: index, ulnar contra>ipsi>contra 1/2 begin wrist, exterior V cheek wrist: ulnar H2: pinky, ulnar ipsi>contra>ipsi wrist, ulnar V-claw upper lip wrist: radial H2: thumb, tip middle>ends wrist, radial V-L mouth trunk: collarbone H2: thumb, radial tracing whole hand inside W teeth trunk: pectoral (mid) H2: thumb, ulnar clockwise whole hand outside wood tongue trunk: stomach H2: radial full counterclockwise ulnar, radial (alternating) X jaw trunk: hips H2: heel across major areas elbow, h1 on h2 Y chin trunk: setting change H2: index+thumb, radial [relative to locations] lower arm, h1 on h2 under chin thigh H2: whole finger index+thumb, radial ear butt H2: whole hand inside index+thumb pinch skin neck H2: whole hand outside middle+thumb, interior Table 3. HANDSHAPE FEATURES (linked to HANDSHAPE) handshape name [see “dominant HS name”] Table 6. MOVEMENT fingers number all, 1, 2, 3, 4 1st unique syllable Shape Path plane Plane Relativity Relative to what Contact type Manner of Movement 1 Trill Tense Mouthing Mouthing detail Phonetic syllables Phonemic syllables fingers exact I, IM, IMR, IMRP, M, P, T, TI, TIM, TIMRP, TIP, TP 01 Hold straight [repeated in Relative to body part head [repeated in single path yes none [text entry] 1 monosyllabic 02 Handshape Change (HSC) arc Location] Relative to object head+h2 Location] repeated, exact hs: rubbing no English 2 disyllabic fully open, curved open, curved closed, flat open, flat closed, 03 Trill/Flutter circle Relative to other side of head, ear repeated, 2 location hs: hooking maybe English, reduced 3 trisyllabic joint position bent closed, fully closed 04 Wrist Movement '7' Absolute directionality face repeated, 3 location hs: flattening Swahili 4 mono or di 05 Ulnar Movement zigzag Embodied neck repeated, switch dominance hs: wiggling Swahili, reduced 5 none spread spread, unspread, n/a 06 Path (elbow movement) cross/X Parallel to bodypart arm repeat-on-path hs: releasing Luo 6 unsure 07 Path + Handshape Change U-shape Perpendicular to bodypart lower arm trill hs: closing name 7 08 Path + Trill/Flutter checkmark Around body part non-dom hand bidirectional/reflection ori: nodding unknown 1 or 2 stacked stacked, crossed, none 09 Path + Wrist Movement circle+straight Through body part body front bounce ori: twisting unclear/hidden heavy mono 10 Path + Ulnar Movement down+out variable: towards person/ leg alternating, sequential