Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” GLOSSED (Basic) in ASL
ORIGINAL EXCERPT:
“But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promise land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promise land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
TRANSLATION:
DOESN'T-MATTER WHAT-HAPPEN TO PRO.1 NOW
WHY? MOUNTAIN TOP, PRO.1 TOUCH-FINISH
DON'T-MIND
YOU-KNOW, LIKE #ALL PEOPLE PRO.1 FUTURE LIKE LIVE LONG LIFE
LONG LIFE HAVE PLACE
____n____
BUT, NOW PRO.1 CONCERN WITH THAT
WHAT GOD WANT, PRO.1 WANT DO-DO
GOD-INDEX ALLOW PRO.1 WALK-UP MOUNTAIN
PRO.1 LOOK, PRO.1 SEE INDEX PROMISE LAND
ARRIVE INDEX WITH YOU, PRO.1 MAYBE NOT
BUT, TONIGHT PRO.1 WANT YOU-ALL KNOW
WE PEOPLE-GROUP FUTURE GO-GROUP ARRIVE PROMISE LAND
TONIGHT HAPPY PRO.1
PRO.1 NOT WORRY
PRO.1 NOT SCARED ANY PERSON
GLORY COME-FROM LORD, MY EYES SEE
American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language for Deaf Americans. There are three ways of writing ASL down onto paper. The method I chose was GLOSSING. The term GLOSSING means choosing an appropriate English word for signs in order to write them down. The other methods of writing down ASL are very meticulous and involve symbols rather than words. There are many syntax and grammar rules that go along with GLOSSING. Here are a few of them.
RULE #1 ~ Always write in capital letters
- When writing down a sign it MUST be capitalized. This shows the reader that it is a sign being used. If the reader sees lower case letters they will assume that it is a side note and not used by the signer.
- The only other time you can use lower case letters is for non-manual signals, determiners, and other movements.
RULE #2 ~ Write what you see.
- Since ASL is a visual language, when it is written sometimes native English speakers will feel the need to correct it. Some mistake it as a broken form of English. This is not true.
- ASL is meant to be translated for meaning, not word for word. If the speaker is talking and the interpreter signs a different word, they are signing for the meaning of the statements, not the exact words.
RULE #3 ~ There is NO “I” in American Sign Language
- I REPEAT, there is NO “I” … ASL recognizes the index finger pointing to the chest as being ME, not I.
- The finger pointing to your chest can also be GLOSSED as PRO.1. PRO.1 means “me”, PRO.2 is second person, and PRO.3 would be third person.
- Example: PRO.3 LOVE PRO.1 – would mean, “he loves me” or “she loves me”
RULE #4 ~ Substitute the word “because” with the sign “WHY”
- In ASL the word because is usually substituted by a pause or by the sign WHY.
- The sign WHY in this case was used to continue the idea.
RULE #5 ~ When fingerspelling, always use a hash tag (pound sign) before word to show lexicalization or each letter.
- The hash tag shows readers that the sign after it is fingerspelled or lexicalized.
- Lexicalized signs are fingerspelled signs that become “word-like” after movement added or letters dropped.
RULE #6 ~ When two free morphemes are put together to make a new sign always hyphenate or use an upside down U-like shape to combine the two.
- In this case, the sign WHAT can stand alone, as well as HAPPEN. When put together they form the meaning of “What happened?” or “what happens”.
RULE #7 ~ Show non-manual signals
- In Dr King Jr.’s speech, he uses a lot of “nots” in English. In ASL, we can do the same thing with just the shake of the head while signing the word. This negates the word. In the sentence “BUT, NOW PRO.1 CONCERN WITH THAT”, I put the __n__ over the sign CONCERN to show that it was being negated while signing. There are many other non-manual signals.
There are so many other rules to Glossing American Sign Language. It would take me more than this 3-4 page paper to write them all (as well as remember each one). I would consider this paper to be more of a two step paper. I had to translate the speech from English to ASL, then I had to transcribe the speech picking English words that fit ASL translation’s meaning. This was a process.
Anyone reading this gloss without any background knowledge or without reading ahead to my descriptions probably thought I was making this up. I swear I’m not. Though glossing is mostly used for linguists, it is also very important for native Deaf signers. Whenever I speak with my Deaf friends or teachers via internet or text they always seem to have some sort of ASL gloss in their writing. For instance, the sign “PAH” when both of your index fingers are pointing upward and you turn both of your hands out so your fingers are now facing away from you and mouth the word “pah”, you just signed FINALLY. When speaking to some of my Deaf friends, they will use PAH instead of finally. For someone who doesn’t know this, they will be confused. Of course when writing something professional or for school work, they will switch from their glossing to a more standard form of English afraid that the Gloss won’t be taken seriously.
This assignment made me think back to the reading we did on Tan. Her mother was ashamed of her “broken English” and would have her daughter speak for her over the phone in fear of what others would think. Well glossing proves that it should not be considered “broken English”. She simply was transcribing her language into appropriate English words that fit her meaning.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr was a fantastic public speaker. When giving his “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” speech, he used a lot of metaphors. It was very professionally spoken, but also in a non-standard dialect. I say it was on the borderline of standard and non-standard because it could be read and understood easily. It was formal, but on the other hand very personable. I chose this piece to translate because I felt I could convey his meanings better than a piece that had a lot of big words I would have to continually Google. Since ASL is translated in meaning, I felt the power in his words come through each sign.
I thoroughly enjoyed being able to interpret Dr Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech into an ASL Gloss for this assignment. Though it was difficult and time consuming, I feel it brought me one step closer to the “real world” of interpreting meaning from English. If nothing, I hope I helped open some eyes to the meaning of transcribing rather than using the term “broken English”.