Requests for new languages/Wiktionary American Sign Language

American Sign Language Wiktionary

submitted	verification	final decision

	This language has been verified as eligible. The language is eligible for a project, which means that the subdomain can be created once there is an active community and a localized interface, as described in the language proposal policy. You can discuss the creation of this language project on this page.

Proposal summary
Language details: American Sign Language (ase ISO 639-3) Editing community: Working for Him (P) Mike.lifeguard (P) List your user name if you're interested in editing the wiki. Add "N" next to your name if you are a native speaker of this language. Relevant pages: development wiki project External links: SignPuddle, ASLPro
Please read the handbook for requesters for help using this template correctly.

American Sign Language is the natural language of approximately 30 million residents in the United States and Canada. A Wiktionary could include both Sutton SignWriting, Stokoe notation, English gloss, and video presentations for each sign. The primary notation would be in Sutton SignWriting.

Arguments in favour

Support Wikipedia in ASL has already been proposed and verified. Wiktionary will be a lot easier to make and just as useful. It could help organize individual signs and help non-natives learn the language. Working for Him 23:07, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
As per my comments on the Wikipedia proposal. — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 00:45, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Support Why shouldn't we have this? cntrational 23:39, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Most deaf people can read and write in normal English. Of course they can't hear it, but they can see and read in English. —§ stay (sic)! 14:44, 27 December 2009 (UTC) -- that may indeed be the case, but those people don't necessary know what an English word is in ASL. A wiktionary project would be helpful for the users of ASL and indeed is a lighter project to run than a wikipedia. Pitke 13:14, 26 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Support I'm a bit unsure about the technical aspects, but ASL is definitely a language completely distinct from English, and as such I don't see any reason to oppose a Wikipedia in it as long as there is font support. (Mind you, Unicode support would be preferable to private use font support.) --Celtic Minstrel (talk) 18:21, 10 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Support Definitely needed I'm also more than willing to help with this project :D --Cameron11598 (talk) 04:44, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against

There is nobody actively asking for this project. GerardM 21:20, 18 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
On what basis are you making that conclusion? — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 21:59, 19 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Because nobody is identified as proposing it and actively supporting it. GerardM 22:45, 19 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
HI! Here I am! Do the people who said they supported this proposal on the Wikipedia proposal not count? I suppose this depends on your definition of "nobody" and "supporting" — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 23:06, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
See the template at the top of the request? Put your name in it if you want to be counted. Right now one person seems to be supporting it. Empire3131 00:05, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for pointing that out. — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 15:12, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Oppose Most deaf people can read and write in normal English. Of course they can't hear it, but they can see and read in English. —§ stay (sic)! 14:44, 27 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Weak oppose We don't even have a ASL wikipedia. Before we get a wiktionary in ASL, we need a growing Wikipedia community. After that, I will support.
According to the Wikipedia in ASL project, some people want an ASL Wiktionary first. That's why this request exists. cntrational 23:39, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Other discussion

There is a previous request for an ASL wikipedia.. This gets precedence because this is what people want in the first place.. For both projects it must be said that at this time we cannot support SignWriting in MediaWiki. This is the only script that is used to write ASL. Thanks, GerardM 00:05, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, in your second sentence, what does "this" refer to? — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 00:45, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

SignWriting. GerardM 08:13, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK, yeah. SignWriting and video are really the only viable methods. I doubt including glosses or Stokoe notations (or anything else, like the Wiktionary-invented markup) is helpful - quite the contrary. — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 18:17, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know if there are any ASL multilingual dictionaries already? If not, this proposal seems like it would be a lot more useful than an ASL Wikipedia. Do any such translating dictionaries exist? --Yair rand 04:02, 21 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes there are.. my question to you is why would it be a lot more useful ? What people need to learn to do is WRITE in ASL. Thanks, GerardM 14:29, 21 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

From the perspective of the Language committee, the project is eligible. However, you there is still no browser support for top-down writing systems, so you can use Sign Writing. If you are interested in making a work group for creating that support, please contact me: millosh@gmail.com. --Millosh 03:06, 4 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]