Question: "If someone with one arm speaks with sign language is it a
speech impediment or an accent?" - Nikolai Orr
Answer: "One-armed signing" could be considered a "signing
impediment" that causes an accent.
An accent is "a distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language."*
"Distinctive" means, "characteristic of one person or thing, and so serving to
distinguish it from others."*
On the other hand (heh) "one armed signing" could also be considered a form of
efficiency. If you are carrying a bag of groceries in one arm, it is more
efficient to simply sign with one arm than to put the bag down to sign with both
arms.
So, if an action leads to an efficient result is it really an "impediment?"
An impediment is, "a hindrance or obstruction in doing something."*
If one armed signing is not a hindrance or obstruction" then it cannot be
considered an impediment.
One-armed signing could be considered a hindrance (impediment) in one situation
but not another -- for example, a native-level Deaf signer will typically
understand the one-armed signing of another native-level Deaf signer -- with
little to no time lag nor drop in understanding of the message." For those two
Deaf signers, one-armed signing did not become a hinderance but rather allowed
one of the signers to do something with the other arm -- such as hold a phone to
allow for video communication during grocery shopping. However, two
Hearing, only moderately skilled signers might find one-armed signing to reduce
their understanding of the signed message to the point where it impacts
understanding, requires repletion, and thus impedes communication.
Let's look at another example. You recently read my sentence "Let's look
at another example." Did my use of the word -- "let's" -- hinder your
understanding of the sentence? No? I left out the letter "u" in word "us"
in the phrase "let us." The lack of the letter "u" did not impede your
understanding. Sometimes the use of one armed signing actually leads to
improvements in signed communication. For example the signs for children,
cow, cat, have, happy, and others have all evolved from using "two arms" (or
"two hands") to instead being commonly done "one handed."
Back to your question: "If someone with one arm speaks with sign language
is it a speech impediment or an accent?" If enough signs evolve one-handed
versions (which might very well happen in this day and age of holding a phone
while signing to someone) there might come a time when it is "two-handed"
signing that is considered an impediment and/or having an accent.
- Dr. Bill
Notes:
Also see: One handed signing
Also see:
One handed signing
(2)
Also See "Right
or left handed signing"
*Definitions source: Oxford, online dictionary, via Google
search result).
Notes: