Syllables and Words in Thai Sign Language
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Date
2010-01-12
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Journal of Ratchasuda College for Research and Development of Persons with Disabilities
Abstract
This paper studies the signs, syllables and words in Thai Sign Language (ThSL) based on Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith, 1976, 1990) which is used for the analyses of the American Sign Language and many other sign languages (Brentari, 1996). Autosegmental phonology analyzes components of signs non-linearly, emphasizing on the simultaneity in time of the components. The results of this study show that a ThSL sign is composed of handshape, orientation, location and movement as well as other non-manual components. Each of these components functions to distinguish word meaning in the same manner as a phoneme does in a spoken language. Evidence for syllable internal-structures is also found for ThSL. The syllable displays both aspects that are the same and different from that of a spoken language. Simultaneity in time is the most important characteristics of ThSL syllables. Moreover, ThSL displays behavior very much like that which was found in a spoken language, with variants, reduction and deletion of sign components and syllables. Syllables and words in ThSL are evident that ThSL consists of linguistic units and structures comparable to the phonological units and structures in a natural language.
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Journal of Ratchasuda College for Research and Development of Persons with Disabilities; Vol.4 No.1 January-June 2008; 95-113