A concise sign dictionary will help you, dear reader, to master the vocabulary of sign speech. This is a small dictionary, it contains about 200 gestures. Why were these gestures chosen? Such questions inevitably arise, especially when the volume of the dictionary is small. Our dictionary was created in this way. Since the dictionary is intended primarily for teachers of the deaf, teachers and educators of schools for the deaf took part in determining the composition of the dictionary. For several years, the author has been offering students of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute working in boarding schools for the deaf a list of gestures - "candidates" for a dictionary. And he turned to them with a request: to leave in the list only the most necessary gestures for the teacher and educator, and delete the rest. But you can add to the list if needed. All gestures that were objected to by more than 50% of expert teachers were excluded from the initial list. Conversely, the vocabulary included gestures proposed by experts if more than half of them believed that it was appropriate.

The gestures included in the dictionary are mainly used in both Russian sign speech and calque sign speech. They are grouped by topic. Of course, the attribution of many gestures to a particular topic is largely conditional. The author here followed the tradition of compiling thematic dictionaries, and also sought to place in each group gestures denoting objects, actions, and signs, so that it would be more convenient to talk on a given topic. At the same time, gestures have continuous numbering. If you, the reader, need to remember, for example, how the gesture INTERFERE is performed, but you do not know which thematic group it is in, you must do so. At the end of the dictionary, all gestures (of course, their verbal designations) are arranged in alphabetical order, and the ordinal index of the gesture INTERFERE will make it easy to find it in the dictionary.

Symbols in the figures will help to more accurately understand and reproduce the structure of the gesture.

Wishing you success in learning the vocabulary of sign language, the author expects from you, dear reader, suggestions for improving the concise sign dictionary.

Conventions

greetings acquaintance

1. Hello 2. Goodbye

3. Thank you 4. Sorry (those)

GREETINGS INTRODUCTION

5. Name 6. Profession

7. Specialty 8. Who

GREETINGS INTRODUCTION

9. What 10. Where

11. When 12. Where

GREETINGS INTRODUCTION

13. From where 14. Why

15. Why 16. Whose

A FAMILY

17. Man 18. Man

19. Woman 20. Child

21. Family 22. Father

23. Mother 24. Son

25. Daughter 26. Grandmother

27. Grandfather 28. Brother

29. Sister 30. Live

31. Work 32. Respect

33. Take care 34. Help

35. Hinder 36. Friendship

37. Young 38. Old

We are accustomed to consider oral speech as the only and main language of people. But besides it, there are other ways of expressing words and thoughts. People with hearing impairment use body language and facial expressions for interpersonal communication. It is intended for communication between deaf people and is called sign language. Gesture speech is carried out using a visual channel for transmitting information. This type of communication is not widespread and has not yet been fully studied. Only in our state, Russian sign language is used by 2 million people.

In sign language, information is transmitted from talking person to the listener through hand, eye or body movement. It is perceived through the visual channel and has the following properties:

• In sign language, the main place is occupied by the space around the speaking person. When communicating, it affects all levels of the language.
• Unlike spoken words reaching the ears sequentially, the language of the deaf is shown and perceived simultaneously. This helps convey more information using a single gesture.

There is no universal sign language for deaf and dumb people in the world. There are more than 100 sign languages ​​used for communication between people with speech and hearing impairments. People using different gestures will not understand each other. Deaf people can, like speakers, learn or forget the sign language of another country.

The use of sign language is expanding every year, making a primitive system of communication a suitable area for expressing a variety of thoughts and ideas. Sign language is used in the educational system, on television, video lessons. Russian sign language is used only for interpersonal communication of people.

In Europe, the language of the deaf appeared at the beginning of the 18th century. Before his advent, deaf people lived and studied in isolation from others. The first school for the deaf and dumb appeared in 1760 in France. The main task of teachers was teaching deaf children to read and write. To solve this problem, the old French sign language, which appeared among a group of deaf-mutes, was used. He was slightly modified. Specially designed learning gestures were added, which were used to indicate grammar. In training, the “mimic method” of transmitting information was used, when each letter was indicated by a separate hand gesture.

This system of education later began to be used in Russia. In 1806, the first school for the deaf was opened in Pavlovsk. And in 1951, the World Federation of the Deaf appeared. Members of the organization decided to create a standard sign language. It was to be applied to deaf professionals and public figures participating in the congress.

To standardize sign language, experts from many countries, having analyzed similar gestures used by different nationalities, developed a single language for all. And in 1973, a dictionary of sign speech was published, which was prepared by the World Federation of the Deaf.

Shortly thereafter, at the VII Congress of Deafness in America, a international language deaf, which was used to communicate between deaf people from different countries participating in world-class events.

Sign Language Linguistics

Despite the prevailing opinion about the language of the deaf as a primitive language, it is distinguished by its rich vocabulary and not at all easy to use. A linguistic study was conducted, which proved the presence in the language of elements that are present in full-fledged oral speech.

Gesture words consist of simple components - hirem, which do not carry a semantic load. There are 3 elements that describe the structure and difference between gestures:

• The location of the gesture to the body of the speaker;

A gesture can be used in a neutral space for it, on the same level with a part of the body without touching it.

• The shape of the hand that performs the gesture;
• The movement of the hand when performing a gesture.

The movement of the hand in space and the movement of the hand or fingers with the same position of the hand are taken into account.

• The movement of the hands in space relative to the body of the speaker's body or to each other.

Gestures are schematic in nature, invented in the course of communication and have a distinctive connection with the visual designation of the word. The language of the deaf has its own grammar to facilitate communication on diverse topics and is not a visual repetition of ordinary language.

Distinctive features of the structure of sign language

• specificity;

There is no generalization in the gesture, limited by the sign of the object and action. There is not a single gesture in which the words "big" and "go" are used. Such words are used in various gestures that accurately convey the signs or movement of a person.

A gesture is capable of depicting an object. Sounds or letters that make up words, independent of the characteristics of the object, can be conveyed by a special movement of the hand. For example, for a picture of a house, the hands show a roof, and for a picture of friendship, they show a handshake.

The origin of the names of things in speech is sometimes impossible to explain. The origin of gestures is easier to explain, since their history of creation and emergence is known. But even it is erased over time and becomes more schematic.

• Imagery;

Thanks to the imagery, gestures are easier to remember and learn. It makes gestures clearer for deaf people to communicate with each other.

• Syncretism;

Gestures have the property of unity in the transmission of words different in sound, but the same in meaning. For example, fire, bonfire or video, shooting. To designate synonyms in a gesture, additional features of the subject are used. For example, to designate a picture, the word “draw” and “frame” are shown.

• Amorphous;

Sign language consists of concepts, but it is not capable of expressing such forms of grammar as case, gender, tense, number, aspect. For this, gestural mimic speech is used, which from a small number of gestures receives the usual combinations of words. This happens by gluing (agglutinating) the word in a certain order:

1. A person or object is a designation of an action (I - sleep);
2. The ongoing action is denial (to be able to - no);
3. Designation of the subject - quality;
4. The state of an object or person (a cat is sick, slightly).

• Grammatical spatiality.

Gesture speech conveys several phrases and words at the same time. An expression transmitted in this way contains, in addition to gestures, non-manual components. This is the facial expression of a speaking person, the movement of body parts, a look. This type of information transfer is used, as well as intonation in oral speech.

The language of deaf people is non-linear. Grammar is transmitted along with vocabulary, the speaker's gesture can be modified during communication.

Teaching Russian Sign Language

Learning sign language will take the same amount of time as learning any other language, special video courses will come in handy. In addition to the theoretical part, practice is required. Without it, it is not possible to master the language. Understanding deaf and dumb people is much more difficult than showing something yourself. The test speech contains words or expressions that do not have a translation into Russian.

You can learn sign language on your own, with the help of video lessons or a dictionary. Using video training, you can learn how to use in practice when communicating with deaf people such simple but necessary words as “thank you”, “sorry”, “love”. The word "thank you" in the language of the deaf will come in handy in life when meeting deaf people.

Using video lessons, it is easier to learn and remember information, to understand how to correctly perform a gesture, to practice by repeating movements. Learning the language of the deaf, with the help of dictionaries, lectures or video lessons, solves the following tasks:

• Improving speech skills through the use of sign language;
• Expansion of knowledge about the linguistic component of the language;
• Formation of knowledge about the language of the deaf as a natural form of communication between people, the presence of similar and distinctive characteristics with other languages;
• Acquaintance with the history of the origin of the language and the stages of development;
• Formation of the importance of language learning and understanding of the role of Russian and sign speech in the life of society.

Learning a language with the help of a special program or a video lesson contributes to the development of communication in different living conditions, in informal communication with friends, parents, unfamiliar people or in a formal conversation.

Day of the sign language interpreter was established in January 2003 at the initiative of the Central Board of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf. The All-Russian Public Organization of the Disabled "All-Russian Society of the Deaf" (VOG) is the largest and oldest public organization of the hearing impaired in Russia, founded in 1926.

The purpose of the Day of the sign language interpreter is to draw public attention to the problems of the deaf. For comparison, if in Finland there are 300 sign language interpreters for every thousand deaf people, then in Russia there are only three. And over time, the number of sign language interpreters is only getting smaller. At the same time, the work of a sign language interpreter is invaluable in social terms for the deaf community, because he is needed in court, the police, the tax office, for social protection, at the doctor's office and so on.

Usually, sign language interpreters are children of deaf parents who grew up in a “deaf” environment. You can get an education in this specialty in training centers St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The language that sign language interpreters “speak” from the screen or with their clients is sign language, and several million people around the world communicate in it. In some countries, it has long been officially recognized and is used to adapt news programs and various programs for people with hearing problems.

By the way, October 24 The State Duma The Russian Federation in the first reading adopted a bill raising the status of Russian sign language. Thanks to amendments to the laws "On Education" and "On the Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the Russian Federation", Russian Sign Language is now defined as the language of communication in the presence of hearing or speech impairments, including in the areas of oral use state language RF.

The special significance of this bill is that the official recognition of the status of the Russian sign language will create the necessary conditions for educational institutions to receive education for the hearing impaired using sign language, to build a system of training and retraining of teachers on the basis of secondary and higher professional educational institutions, according to the website VOGinfo.ru.

How to communicate with a person in the language of the deaf?

sign language

First, one of the major misconceptions about sign languages ​​is that they are dependent on or derived from spoken languages ​​(sound and written) and that these languages ​​were invented by hearers. This is not true. Secondly, dactyling of letters is often taken for sign languages ​​- that is, when the letters are “depicted” by hands.

The difference between fingerprinting and sign language, which is used by the deaf to communicate with each other, is that fingerprinting is used mainly for pronouncing proper names, geographical names or specific terms, that is, each word is “showed” by hand letter by letter. At the same time, sign signs represent whole words, and in total there are more than 2000 gestures in the dictionary of the deaf. Show some of them will not be difficult.

For example:

You can learn more about sign language from a well-known book. G. L. Zaitseva“Gesture speech. Dactylology".

It is easier to get acquainted with the basics of dactylology - there is a well-established alphabet, and by spelling a word with gestures, you can communicate with a deaf person. There are 33 dactyl signs in Russian dactylology, each of which corresponds to the outline of the corresponding letter.

Russian dactyl alphabet from the site deafnet.ru:

Note that a deaf or hard of hearing person is likely to understand exactly what you want to say to him without sign language, because for the most part they are very good at reading lips.

There are about 120,000 deaf people in Russia. The main language of communication for them is Russian sign language. There are less than a thousand interpreters from sign language into Russian - this profession is rare and in demand. Director of the Center for the Education of the Deaf and Sign Language Anna Komarova replied to uncomfortable questions about the profession.

Anna Komarova

Deaf-mute or deaf: how to speak about those who do not hear?

“Deaf and mute” is indecent to say, because the word “deaf mute” implies that a person cannot express himself, and the deaf have their own sign language. So "deaf-mute" is used only in conversations about history - for example, when we talk about the first schools for deaf children.

In English, "deaf" - Deaf - is spelled with capital letter like any other socio-cultural community or nationality. The deaf themselves are proud of the word “deaf”, but various euphemisms like “a person with a hearing impairment or lack of hearing” imply that the deaf person does not have something, although the deaf themselves consider themselves simply different, different.

We can divide the deaf community according to medical criteria into several groups:

• hard of hearing, that is, those who, thanks to hearing aids, can recognize speech or hear sounds environment;
• deaf, i.e. those who have lost their hearing already having a developed verbal language;
• deaf.

Russian sign language is the same Russian, only with hands?

No. Russian Sign Language (RSL), which is spoken by the deaf, is very different from Russian, it has its own grammar and a different word order. For example, the definition comes after the noun, as in French, and the negation of "not" after the verb, as in German. He is as different from Russian as any foreign language. Russian Sign Language is in the same language group as French Sign Language and American Sign Language, but British Sign Language is in another language group.

There is also Russian in gestures, when gestures accompany the words of Russian sentences. Sometimes it is called "tracing paper", it used to be shown on TV, but only those who speak Russian well, most often late deaf or hard of hearing, understand it. The deaf, even those who can read newspapers fluently, do not understand him. Especially if on the screen it is a small head in a circle. Russian subtitles in this case are much better.

Even the deaf use the "manual" alphabet, when one gesture is not a word, but only a letter. The alphabet, which is called dactylology, is used to denote terms and proper names.

Deaf people have slang. Gestures understandable only to one group. Deaf people have their own slang - it may not coincide with Russian at all, however, if a word is popular on the Internet, it is also in sign language.

A Brief History of Sign Language

All modern sign languages ​​are quite young. Russian sign language is one of the oldest in the world, it appeared no earlier than the 1760s. It is likely that deaf people used gestures before, but we do not know which ones. For example, it is known for sure that artels of deaf artists spoke with gestures in Italy in the 16th century, and in the Orphanage in Moscow in the 18th century, but there are no records of the gestures themselves. In general, a national sign language appears when stable groups of deaf people appear.

But for a long time, deaf communities were fought. In the 19th century, in the USA, in Europe, and in our country, the movement of oralists was especially influential - those who believed that the deaf should be taught verbal language, and the deaf should not be allowed to marry each other. Deaf teachers were forbidden to work at school - so the hearing taught the deaf. This was based on various religious misconceptions, such as: God cannot be reached if you do not speak verbal language, or that if you use gestures, then you are a subhuman, a monkey.

Oddly enough, but the idea that if you speak with a voice, then you stand higher on the evolutionary ladder, turned out to be extremely tenacious. My 16 year old mother in one of best schools In Moscow in the 1950s, a biology teacher (!) explained that those who use gestures and wave their hands gradually become covered with fur and turn into monkeys. However, other misconceptions can be considered game: deaf people are often considered mentally disabled or simply stupid, although deafness has nothing to do with mental capacity does not have. Unfortunately, bad translation can also be to blame for this.

The deaf felt relatively calm in 1938, a seemingly terrible time, repressions, but it was then that a decision was made that sign language should be used to teach the deaf. This is explained by the fact that during industrialization, the country needed qualified personnel for factories, and high-quality education for the deaf without sign language is impossible.

Unfortunately, already in 1950, Stalin's article "Marxism and questions of linguistics" was published, where the sign language was called a fake, ersatz language. After that, Russian sign language was banned again.

Where are sign language interpreters trained?

Since 2012 - at the Moscow State Linguistic University, at the Faculty of English. Students teach English language, as well as Russian and British Sign Languages.

So far there have been two editions of 10 people each. Out of the first 5 people work with RSL. For example, one graduate is seriously engaged in linguistics, went to various foreign seminars, now received a grant from an English university and is going to write for several years. scientific work.

Another graduate interprets in the Society of the Deaf, she also translated the UN session in Switzerland and is returning today from the Deaf Olympic Games in Turkey.

Another one works with RSL in the museum contemporary art"Garage", deals with art, painting by deaf artists. Two more are engaged in community interpreting, that is, they translate in any situation: for example, one of them translated for our deaf-blind people in Finland, now she is going to Denmark ... The guys have not yet decided on the second issue.

Before MSLU, translators mostly learned the language in courses or mastered it in the family. The majority of Russian sign language interpreters in our country come from deaf families, most often they are older hearing daughters. Another small part are missionaries or those who want to help the deaf. But knowing a language and being able to translate are very different skills. So the level of professional training is very different.

What should a sign language interpreter be able to do?

Unlike translators from other languages, working with sign language is, with rare exceptions, simultaneous translation: that is, you listen to verbal language and translate it into gestures or translate gestures into oral speech.

In addition, ordinary simultaneous interpreters sit in a booth, no one sees them, and they are entirely focused on interpreting, if they are wrong, then no one knows that this particular person was wrong. A sign language interpreter stands on the stage, and everyone who knows sign language evaluates his work, everyone sees his mistakes. Morally, it's not easy.

It is important that the specialist can translate not only in one direction, but he himself understands what the deaf person is saying. It happens that because of the mistakes of the translator, because of his poor command of both sign language and literate Russian, the speech of a deaf person seems incoherent, illogical, and everyone thinks that he is stupid.

Where do sign language interpreters work?

Sign language interpreters can work in the same places as interpreters of any other languages: at conferences, at universities, social institutions, business. But for some reason, it has historically developed in our country that a sign language interpreter is for some reason a social worker, and in Europe and the USA this problem no longer exists. Our average translator is a woman with an average special education from a deaf family who works in a deaf community and who knows how to do everything: she is a secretary, an accountant, a lawyer, an assistant, she makes coffee. And this is fundamentally wrong.

People often come into the profession who want to help. For example, when we ask through questionnaires what are the required qualities of an interpreter, we are told “kindness”. Everyone writes “kindness”, but in general a translator should not be kind, he should be a professional, be attentive, accurate, and in our country everyone wants to advise the deaf or decide for him.

Ideally, the interpreter should be invisible: interpret in such a way that it seems to the hearer that the deaf person is speaking, and to the deaf person that the hearer speaks his language. Then the translator is really well done.

An interpreter is needed when visiting a doctor, for any legal actions. Now we require that everyone who works in the courts must pass mandatory certification and receive a certificate of admission for translation in court. There are stories when translators made mistakes in translation, and this was reflected in the verdicts: on the charges and terms of punishment.

Translation is needed not only in a court or a hospital, but also in business, for example, MTS and MegaFon employees learn sign language in order to serve deaf clients. The MFC has an agreement for remote translation: the translator works via Skype with the center, the deaf client has free access to the translation.

But translators are most needed in institutes and colleges, because without them it is very difficult to get an education. And now we are fighting so that the deaf can study where they want, and not where there are groups. It's just that since Soviet times it has developed so that if you are deaf, you are doomed to study as an engineer, because at the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman since the 1930s, there are special groups with an interpreter, and in other places they may not be.

For example, this year one completely deaf girl entered MSLU - she wants to study linguistics, become the first certified deaf linguist, but who and under what conditions will she translate all lectures? The question is still open.