Sun 4 Dec 2011
(8:02) English summary: Hello. Recently someone I worked in Boston, MA during the mid-1970’s contacted me. In Boston, as a recent Gallaudet graduate, I worked at the Northeastern University at Dr. Harlan Lane’s newly-established ASL research lab with people like Marie Philip, Dr. Francois Grosjean and naturally, Dr. Lane, himself. While in Boston, I also worked with other researchers such as Dr. Ronnie Wilbur (currently at Purdue University in Indiana) and Dr. Judy Kegl (I believe, now at University of Southern Maine).
It was Ronnie Wilbur who contacted me not long ago, and shared a few very old videos that she found, which was nostaglic. I will share a couple parts which shows myself and Marie Philip singing songs, believe it or not. Will share a few words after I show the clips.
Clip 1: except from video with Marie Philip and Ella Mae Lentz “We Like Men” song created by Eric Malzkuhn for his original musical “Moments Preserved” (1960’s)
Clip 2: Ella Mae Lentz and Marie Philip “Three Blind Mice” inspired by the National Theatre of the Deaf production “My Third Eye” (early 1970’s)
Done with laughing with disbelief? Now, lets’ do a bit of analysis.
Yes, those clips show us signing in strong English word order, and rhythm being very important. However, we could see some ASL influences, especially in the sign vocabulary choices. For examples:
• use of classifiers to describe the size and thickness of a steak, fancy hats, fancy shoes and long-haired cats
• to sign “menu”, a sign phrase was used (2h)altEAT+LIST
• “Don’t look!” translated to !WAVE-NO! LOOK-AT-me (inflection verb modified for “to me”)
• part in 3 Blind Mice “Have you seen such a thing in life..?” – “Have” used with sign “FINISH”, “such a” used with sign “THAT-ONE”. Also, yes-no question facial expression was superimposed even tho quite slightly.
Those clips showed examples of how performance pieces in ASL exhibited attempts to apply ASL principles in translations especially during that decade, when the Deaf Resurgence was only recently started after scientific discoveries that ASL is an actually a language with its own phonology, syntax, etc. but we didn’t yet know enough how to identify the ASL principles. It was the time of early ASL research.
As a result, translations were “incomplete.”
Nowadays, there’s a lot of differences. Better in many ways. For me, the best is seeing ORIGINAL ASL songs/poems. Second best would be GOOD ASL TRANSLATIONS of English text.
I continue to work hard at how best and appropriately translate from English to ASL (and vice versa) as well as better strategies to create original ASL works. I expect you all to do the same, not to stop reaching for the best in ASL, and to continue raising the bar for ASL presentations.
December 4th, 2011 at 8:13 pm
I loved this…I’ve always loved the expressiveness and clarity of Ella…she was my most venerated teacher when I went to Vista College (Now Berkeley Community College). I did, however, notice something I wonder if she’s aware…it says under “Ella’s FLashlight” a DeafMUTE’s search…etc. I’m curious why the word “Mute” was used as I thought that was no longer used and is archaic…I learned all about the “big D” Deaf as opposed to “small d” deaf and we were always told it’s just DEAF….not mute associated with it. Hummmmm?
Chris (formerly Sampayan) Gude….Fairfield CA
December 4th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Hi Christine! Thanks for leaving this comment. I did make a response to why I used DeafMute in the banner for this vlogsite long ago. Let me get you the link to this or you can go look for it in the first couple of pages. Believe the title is “Reclaiming Deaf Mute”. Yes it may stretch people s minds. Talk about thinking out of box, smile.
December 4th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Here’s the link to Reclaiming Deaf Mute http://www.ellasflashlight.com/?p=8. Enjoy.
December 5th, 2011 at 3:29 am
Well said!
At first, I didn’t laugh or make fun of you in that video but I was awe. Why? Beautiful ASL was there before I born. When I was little, I was signing in SEE and I thought ASL is used for those who do not understand “English”.
The more I know ASL, I understand English better and I appreciate it very much.
Anyway, I wish I saw the video of Three Blind Mice with you and Marie when I was little. Because when I read about it at school, I didn’t actual read it but look at cool drawing pictures of Three Blind Mice. Ummmm. Love this video already!
December 5th, 2011 at 7:04 am
Melvin, thanks for sharing your thoughts and reflections of the video’s contents. What touched me was what you said about wishing to see materials in ASL when growing up. That! That’s something that I believe several organizations/businesses have been working in recently. Exciting. As the old saying goes, never too late!
December 5th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Ella,
When you and Marie signed the three blind mices. This poem made me looked back that I loved to watch NTD actors signed.
I must admit that two lines in Alma Mater song were difficult to translate and tried to match with school theme.
Wow you still sign very beautiful. It was good to see you again during 150th Celebration.
Rosetta
December 5th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Hi Ella,
Now that my 15 year old is taking ASL I feel ashamed. You know, the hearing parent excuse-too busy- but with this caboose child, I am able to learn with him. I read about you in The Other Side of Silence: Sign Language and the Deaf Community by Neisser and also the name of Laura Ann Petito. Then the other day, I realized it was YOU that helped do the signing in the A Basic Course in American Sign Language by Padden, Humphries, and O’rourke!. . . .although many years ago! Thanks for sharing all that you do!
December 5th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
This was a wonderful treat, Ella! Thank you! Marie is very much missed.
December 5th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
I am in awe–it was so wonderful to see you and Marie together! Boy, where did the time go!? Thanks for sharing this piece of treasure and I’m so glad you and Marie were part of the originals in the day when ASL was being researched and validated as a language of signs. Harlan Lane was truly on mark in his many studies of ASL and Deaf culture as well as many others in the field.
Thank you for sharing a piece of history. I am going to bookmark this and watch it again as it brought joy to my eyes! Thank you for such high class ASL entertainment!
Me? Boston pride forever!
December 9th, 2011 at 1:48 am
Suzann, aw thanks for this comment. Agreed with what u said about the excitement of those early days. An adventure indeed. Yet, it’s nice to see how far we have come in our journeys in understanding ASL and ourselves as Deaf people.