Language McRantypants Strikes Again (Obscure Detail Division)

[gnomi]

OK, so... I'll buy that the character signs. Really, he has so many language skills, it wouldn't surprise me to find that he knows sign. However -- and this is the kicker -- he'd know American Sign Language. Not British Sign Language. I can get past the BrE spellings (kind of). I can get past (somewhat) the BrE phrases in the mouths secondary characters (even if they're not specifically identified as being from the UK). But... Ms. Writer Person, you're really pushing it when you put British Sign in the hands of an American character.

Grrrrr.

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Hey, ms. Obscure language trivia lady,

Do you know if there was, PRE ASL, a fingerspelling language used in the US? If so, what was it, and where do I find out more.

I'm not looking for the finger alphabet thing, ala Helen keller, this was a whole system I'm sure I read about and now can't find for the life of me.

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

There were several. ASL is based partially on the Martha's Vineyard SL with influence from various home systems.

(I was reading wiki about this just the other day!)

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

*Runs off to wiki -- I tend to be wiki averse, but considering the deplorable state of our local library, that may not be such a good thing*

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

Wiki's fantastic for casual browsing, and if it's not essential that the information be completely accurate or complete. But you know, it's the internet... :)

[sethg]

An excellent book on the Marthas Vineyard deaf/signing community is Groce(?), Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, perhaps sethg_prime will weigh in on this... he'd be the person I'd ask.

[bbennett.livejournal.com]

My ASL interpreter friend would be highly amused.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Mm, yeah. That's one of those details that you've got to know some esoteric information, sure. But to me it read as the author not realizing that BSL and ASL are different.

[eal.livejournal.com]

Oh my.

You were having a bad day, weren't you?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Eh, not so much a bad day as much as the "if you're going to put in obscure details, at least do your research" reaction.

Sloppy research makes me cranky. :-)

[sydmcginley.livejournal.com]

As a Brit who once hurled an American-written Regency across the room for including skunks in Essex as a plot device (and another was hurled for having olive trees in England -- groves of them, not a pampered one in a hothouse), I 100% empathize with you.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh. I haven't actually hurled books, but I've put them in my "never read ever again" partway through for getting details about Boston and the Boston area so very wrong.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh. Was this casual, for-fun reading, or was it work?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

For fun, actually.