Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 15:54:12 -0600
Sender: SignWriting List <SW-L@ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA>
From: Shepard-Kegl <kegl@MAINE.RR.COM>

Valerie Sutton wrote:
>>I bet Nicaraguan Sign Language has produced the most titles written in
>SignWriting so far...How many titles do you have now?

James Shepard-Kegl answered:
Well, I am answering this off the top of my head. We write stories at different levels: basic (picture captions mostly), intermediary (simple sentences), sophisticated (story told in some depth, with complex sentences, that is, relative clauses, metaphors, similes, etc.)

Olmo and the Blue Butterfly (basic)
Trojan Horse (basic)
Odysseus and the Cyclops (intermediary)
Odysseus and the Wind God (basic)
Odysseus and Circe the Witch (sophisticated)
Odysseus and the Sirens (intermediary, condensed to a page)
Pied Piper (sophisticated)
Story of Babar (intermediary - sophisticated)
Boy Who Cried Wolf (intermediary - sophisticated)
Columbus (sophisticated)
Lindbergh's Transatlantic Flight (sophisticated)
Taily Po (sophisticated)
Snow in Nicaragua (intermediary)
Pirate Queens (intermediary)
Flying Frog (Nicaraguan folktale) (intermediary)
Where's Spot (basic)
Run Dog Run (basic - intermediary)
Nicaraguan Geography Lesson (intermediary)
Spanish Conquest (intermediary)
Spanish Armada (intermediary - sophisticated)
Life of Sandino (sophisticated)
Icarus, Deadalus, Theseus & the Minotaur (sophisticated)
Nicaraguan History Lesson: 1893-1934 (sophisticated)
Louis Pasteur and the Rabies Vaccine (sophisticated)
Anansi the Spider (intermediary)
Little Engine That Could (intermediary)
Scary Monster (basic)
Caps for Sale (basic - intermediary)
Nicaraguan National Anthem (short, but sophisticated)
Nicaragua, Nicaraguita (short, intermediary)
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (intermediary, actually a grammar lesson in conditionals)

In production (interminably, it seems, but it will be our most challenging work): Moby Dick (very condensed).

Also, we have two dictionaries: the more basic is spanish to Nicaraguan Sign Language and contains a little over 1,000 single word entries. Our second dictionary (available both in English alphabetical order and Spanish alphabetical order) contains over 1,700 entries and includes more phrases.

I may have skipped a few. In January, two Deaf Nicaraguans are coming to Maine so that we may prepare additional texts for the school session in March.

...two schools for the Deaf in Nicaragua... Escuelita de Bluefields Escuelita de Condega ...were founded by... ...and are coordinated by... Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects, Inc. James Shepard-Kegl, Coordinator 52 Whitney Farms Road North Yarmouth, Maine, 04097, USA (207) 846-8801 voice or tty (207) 846-8688 fax Email: kegl@maine.rr.com