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ASL: "late-deafened"


My wife, Belinda and I were discussing how to sign late-deafened.
We discussed some of the various approaches we've seen, including but not limited to:
Spell "late" then sign DEAF.
Spell "late" then sign BECOME DEAF
Sign LATE then sign DEAF
...and so forth. All of this was via messaging.

I sent her the gloss:
"GROW-UP FINISH HIT EAR DROWN"
-- and she was amused/pleased that she instantly knew what I meant.
But since many ASL students might not know what it means I'll explain a bit:

Some signing notes for those of you who would like some expansion:

The sign GROW-UP-[raised/become-older/become-taller] is included in the gloss to indicate that we are not talking about congenital (with it at birth) deafness nor early childhood deafness. Another sign choice here could be ADULT-[tall/this-tall/a-grown-up]. Since there is a difference between a deaf adult and a late deafened person I chose to combine GROW-UP FINISH.

The sign HIT can also be glossed as POW or POW! -- and can mean such things as "got" in the sentence "I got sick."

The "A"-hand version of the sign that we sometimes gloss as DROWN has various meanings including deteriorate/drown/sink/sinking/go-down/lose and so forth. The sign is a good choice for sentences such as: "I'm losing my hearing." [I see that Belinda has recently posted the link to the specific version to which I'm referring.]

Again, don't get hung up on any particular "way" of signing the concept of "late-deafened." Keep in mind that even during the same conversation it is likely that the signing of the concept will evolve.
Early in the conversation you might see the concept put forth as fingerspelling of "L-A-T-E D-E-A-F-E-N-E-D" followed by an explanation such as:
HAPPEN DURING PERSON PRO-3-SELF-[third-person-pronoun] ADULT HIT-[impact/occur/pow/strike] DEAF.
As the conversation progresses the signing of the concept "late-deafened" may shorten to: "L-A-T-E_DEAF."

The (so called) right way to sign something is often different at the beginning of a conversation than it is at the end of a conversation.

Which brings up the point that suppose someone asks you, "How do you sign late-deafened?"

Perhaps part of the right answer is:

"How far along in the conversation are you?"
 

 



 

Notes:
 

 




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