The beauty of sign language

When every movement means something

One thing why I love making pictures for science projects is that I get to learn stuff!

I have made this poster for a sign language research project. It illustrates how remarkable and concise the sign language is.

In one second, the speaker can communicate several different information pieces! With this whole pose, the speaker says: "They (my friends) saw that I was pregnant and were pleasantly surprised." Now try saying this phrase out loud and count how long it took you to pronounce it 🙂

Look how the speaker uses practically all her upper body for the communication. The left-hand shows the sign "pregnant". The torso moves to the side to indicate that it is not her own perspective from which she is talking. It is from the perspective of her friends, whom she must have mentioned earlier. The right hand's gesture means "to see". And the movement of the right hand is directed to the "pregnant" gesture. That shows what the friends are looking at. The face presents the emotions of the friends, describing their feelings and reaction to the news. She also looks at her "pregnant" hand, which again explains what exactly they are reacting to.

Isn't that amazing? It reminds me of a dance, where every movement of every part of your body means something. It makes me wonder if sign language speakers can generally better coordinate their bodies than the rest of us...

So, are you convinced now that sign languages are fantastic? 🙃

See more details on my instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAcYlgLjDkm/

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