Sign Language Among North American Indians 21

Sign Language Among North American Indians 21

Not unfrequently these several

signs to express the same ideas are used interchangeably by the same

people, and some one of the duplicates or triplicates may have been

noticed by separate observers to the exclusion of the others. On

the other hand, they might all have been noticed, but each one among

different bodies. Thus confusing reports would be received, which

might either be erroneous in deducing the prevalence of particular

signs or the opposite. Sometimes the synonym may be recognized as an

imported sign, used with another tribe known to affect it. Sometimes

the diverse signs to express the same thing are only different trials

at reaching the intelligence of the person addressed. An account is

given by Lieut. Heber M. Creel, Seventh Cavalry, U.S.A., of an old

Cheyenne squaw, who made about twenty successive and original signs

to a recruit of the Fourth Cavalry to let him know that she wanted to

obtain out of a wagon a piece of cloth belonging to her, to wipe out

an oven preparatory to baking bread. Thus by tradition, importation,

recent invention, or from all these causes together, several signs

entirely distinct are produced for the same object or action.

 

This class is not intended to embrace the cases common both to sign

and oral language where the same sign has several meanings, according

to the __EXPRESSION__, whether facial or vocal, and the general manner

accompanying its delivery. The sign given, for "stop talking" on page

339 may be used in simple acquiescence, "very well," "all right!" or

for comprehension, "I understand;" or in impatience, "you have talked

enough!" which may be carried further to express actual anger in the

violent "shut up!" But all these grades of thought accompany the idea

of a cessation of talk. In like manner an acquaintance of the writer

asking the same favor (a permission to go through their camp) of

two chiefs, was answered by both with the sign generally used for

repletion after eating, viz., the index and thumb turned toward the

body, passed up from the abdomen to the throat; but in the one case,

being made with a gentle motion and pleasant look, it meant, "I am

satisfied," and granted the request; in the other, made violently,

with the accompaniment of a truculent frown, it read, "I have had

enough of that!" But these two meanings might also have been expressed

by different intonations of the English word "enough." The class of

signs now in view is better exemplified by the French word _souris_,

which is spelled and pronounced precisely the same with the two wholly

distinct and independent significations of _smile_ and _mouse_. From

many examples may be selected the Omaha sign for _think, guess_, which

is precisely the same as that of the Absaroka, Shoshoni and Banak for

_brave_, see page 414. The context alone, both of the sign and the

word, determines in what one of its senses it is at the time used, but

it is not discriminated merely by a difference in __EXPRESSION__.

 

It would have been very remarkable if precisely the same sign were not

used by different or even the same persons or bodies of people with

wholly distinct significations. The graphic forms for objects and

ideas are much more likely to be coincident than sound is for similar

__EXPRESSION__s, yet in all oral languages the same precise sound is used

for utterly diverse meanings. The first conception of many different

objects must have been the same. It has been found; indeed, that

the homophony of words and the homomorphy of ideographic pictures is

noticeable in opposite significations, the conceptions arising from

the opposition itself. The differentiation in portraiture or accent is

a subsequent and remedial step not taken until after the confusion

has been observed and become inconvenient. Such confusion and

contradiction would only be eliminated if sign language were

absolutely perfect as well as absolutely universal.

 

 

SYMMORPHS.

 

In this class are included those signs conveying different ideas, and

really different in form of execution as well as in conception, yet

in which the difference in form is so slight as practically to require

attention and discrimination. An example from oral speech may be

found in the English word "desert," which, as pronounced "des'-ert" or

"desert'," and in a slightly changed form, "dessert," has such widely

varying significations. These distinctions relating to signs require

graphic illustration.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 112.]

 

[Illustration: Fig. 113.]

 

The sign made by the Dakota, Hidatsa, and several other tribes,

for _tree_ is made by holding the right hand before the body, back

forward, fingers and thumb separated, then pushing it slightly upward,

Fig. 112. That for _grass_ is the same made near the ground; that for

_grow_ is made like _grass_, though instead of holding the back of

the hand near the ground the hand is pushed upward in an interrupted

manner, Fig. 113. For _smoke_, the hand (with the back down, fingers

pointing upward as in _grow_) is thrown upward several times from the

same place instead of continuing the whole motion upward. Frequently

the fingers are thrown forward from under the thumb with each

successive upward motion. For _fire_, the hand is employed as in the

gesture for _smoke_, but the motion is frequently more waving, and in

other cases made higher from the ground.

 

The sign for _rain_, made by the Shoshoni, Apache, and other Indians,

is by holding the hand (or hands) at the height of and before the

shoulder, fingers pendent, palm down, then pushing it downward a short

distance, Fig. 114. That for _heat_ is the same, with the difference

that the hand is held above the head and thrust downward toward the

forehead; that for _to weep_ is made by holding the hand as in _rain_,

and the gesture made from the eye downward over the cheek, back of the

fingers nearly touching the face.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 114.]

 

The common sign for _sun_ is made by bringing the tips of the thumb

and index together so as to form a circle; remaining fingers closed.

The hand is then held toward the sky, Fig. 115. The motion with the

same circular position of index and thumb is for _want_, by bringing

the hand backward toward the mouth, in a curve forming a short arch

between the origin and termination of the gesture.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 115.]

 

For _drink_ the gesture by several tribes is the same as for _want_,

with the slight difference in the position of the last three fingers,

which are not so tightly clinched, forming somewhat the shape of a

cup; and that for _money_ is made by holding out the hand with the

same arrangement of fingers in front of the hips, at a distance of

about twelve or fifteen inches.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 116.]

 

Another sign for _sun_, made by the Cheyennes, is by placing the tips

of the partly separated thumb and index of one hand against those of

the other, approximating a circle, and holding them toward the sky,

Fig. 116, and that for _various things_, observed among the Brulé

Sioux with the same position of the hands, is made by placing the

circle horizontal, and moving it interruptedly toward the right

side, each movement forming a short arch. Compare also the sign for

_village_, described on page 386.

 

The Arikara sign for _soldier_ is by placing the clinched hands

together before the breast, thumbs touching, then drawing them

horizontally outward toward their respective sides, Fig. 117. That for

_done_, made by the Hidatsa, is shown below in this paper, see Fig.

334, page 528. That for _much_ (_Cheyenne_ I, _Comanche_ III), see

Fig. 274, page 447, is to be correlated with the above.

 

[Illustration: Fig. 117.]

 

The sign for _to be told_ or _talked to_, and for the reception of

speech, by the tribes generally, is made by placing the flat right

hand, palm upward, about fifteen inches in front of the right side

of the face or breast, fingers pointing to the left, then drawing the

hand toward the bottom of the chin, and is illustrated in Fig. 71,

page 291. The Comanche sign for _give_ or _asking_ is shown in Fig.

301, page 480 (_Comanche_ III), and is made by bringing the hand

toward the body but a short distance, and the motion repeated, the

tips of the fingers indicating the outline of a circle.

 

The tribal sign for _Kaiowa_, illustrated in its place among the

TRIBAL SIGNS, is made by holding the hand with extended and separated

fingers and thumb near the side of the head, back outward, and giving

it a rotary motion. This gesture is made in front of the face by

many tribes. The generic sign for _deer_, made by the Dakota and some

others, is by holding the hand motionless at the side of the head,

with extended and separated thumb and fingers, representing the

branched antlers. That for _fool_, reported from the same Indians,

is the same as above described for _Kaiowa_, which it also signifies,

though frequently only one or two fingers are used.

 

The tribal sign both for the _Sahaptin_ or _Nez Percés_ and for

_Caddo_ (see TRIBAL SIGNS) is made by passing the extended index,

pointing under the nose from right to left. When the second finger is

not tightly closed it strongly resembles the sign often made for _lie,

falsehood_, by passing the extended index and second fingers separated

toward the left, over the mouth.

 

The tribal sign for Cheyenne (see TRIBAL SIGNS) differs from the

sign for _spotted_ only in the finger (or hand) in the latter being

alternately passed across the upper and lower sides of the left

forearm.

 

The sign for _steal, theft_, see Fig. 75, page 293, is but slightly

different from that for _bear_, see Fig. 239, page 413, especially

when the latter is made with one hand only. The distinction, however,

is that the grasping in the latter sign is not followed by the idea of

concealment in the former, which is executed by the right hand, after

the motion of grasping, being brought toward and sometimes under the

left armpit.

 

_Cold_ and _winter_, see Tendoy-Huerito Dialogue, page 486, may be

compared with _love_, see Kin Chē-ĕss' speech, page 521, and

with _prisoner_. In these the difference consists in that _cold_ and

_winter_ are represented by crossing the arms with clinched hands

before the breast; _love_ by crossing the arms so as to bring the

fists more under the chin, and _prisoner_ by holding the crossed wrists a foot in front of the breast.