LINGUIST List 3.675

Mon 07 Sep 1992

Qs: ASL and handedness; Twain and Mississippi English

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Swann Philip, ASL and Handedness
2. Fran Karttunen, Mississippi River talk

I have a couple of questions on sign language and handedness. (i)
Is one hand dominant in signing (i.e. does it carry more information,
or is it used for finer and more intricate movements)? (ii) If so, are
there left and right-handed signers? Any references or info welcome.

Philip Swann
University of Geneva

Shelley Fishkin of the Univ. of Texas American Studies Program has had
a lot of national publicity lately for a book that apparently will not
be published until 1993. The title is Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and
African American Voices. In the student newspaper Fishkin is quoted as
saying that in the flood of letters she has received there was one from a
psycholinguist who "sent research on everyday speech disturbances
corroborating Mark Twain's accurate depiction of them."

"Everyday speech disturbances" are hardly to the point. But I'm
curious to know if any linguist colleagues were consulted by Fishkin
about characteristics of nineteenth-century Mississippi riverlands
vernacular English, African-American or otherwise.

Fran Karttunen