A lesson was learned by the writer as to the abbreviation of signs,
and the possibility of discovering the original meaning of those most
obscure, from the attempts of a Cheyenne to convey the idea of _old
man_. He held his right hand forward, bent at elbow, fingers and thumb
closed sidewise. This not conveying any sense, he found a long stick,
bent his back, and supported his frame in a tottering step by the
stick held, as was before only imagined. Here at once was decrepit age
dependent on a staff. The principle of abbreviation or reduction may
be illustrated by supposing a person, under circumstances forbidding
the use of the voice, seeking to call attention to a particular bird
on a tree, and failing to do so by mere indication. Descriptive signs
are resorted to, perhaps suggesting the bill and wings of the bird,
its manner of clinging to the twig with its feet, its size by seeming
to hold it between the hands, its color by pointing to objects of the
same hue; perhaps by the action of shooting into a tree, picking up
the supposed fallen game, and plucking feathers. These are continued
until understood, and if one sign or combination of signs proves to
be successful it will be repeated on the next occasion by both persons
engaged, and after becoming familiar between them and others will be
more and more abbreviated. Conventionality in signs largely consists
in the form of abbreviation which is agreed upon. When the signs of
the Indians have from ideographic form thus become demotic, they may
be called conventional, but still not arbitrary. In them, as in all
his actions, man had at the first a definite meaning or purpose,
together with method in their subsequent changes or modifications.
Colonel Dodge gives a clear account of the manner in which an
established sign is abbreviated in practice, as follows: "There are an
almost infinite number and variety of abbreviations. For instance, to
tell a man to 'talk,' the most common formal sign is made thus: Hold
the right hand in front of, the back near, the mouth, end of thumb and
index-finger joined into an 'O,' the outer fingers closed on the palm;
throw the hand forward sharply by a quick motion of the wrist, and at
the same time flip forward the index-finger. This may be done once or
several times.
"The formal sign to 'cease' or 'stop doing' anything is made by
bringing the two hands open and held vertically in front of the
body, one behind the other, then quickly pass one upward, the other
downward, simulating somewhat the motion of the limbs of a pair
of scissors, meaning 'cut it off.' The latter sign is made in
conversation in a variety of ways, but habitually with one hand only.
"The formal sign to 'stop talking' is first to make the formal sign
for 'talk,' then the formal sign for 'cut;' but this is commonly
abbreviated by first making the formal sign for 'talk' with the
right hand, and then immediately passing the same hand, open, fingers
extended, downward across and in front of the mouth, 'talk, cut.'
"But though the Plains Indian, if asked for the sign to 'stop
talking,' will properly give the sign either in its extended or
abbreviated form as above, he in conversation abbreviates it so much
further that the sign loses almost all resemblance to its former self.
Whatever the position of the hand, a turn of the wrist, a flip of the
forefinger, and a turn, of the wrist back to its original position is
fully equivalent to the elaborate signs."
It may be added that nearly every sign which to be intelligibly
described and as exhibited in full requires the use of both hands, is
outlined, with one hand only, by skillful Indians gesturing between
themselves, so as to be clearly understood between them. Two Indians,
whose blankets are closely held to their bodies by the left hand,
which is necessarily rendered unavailable for gesture, will severally
thrust the right from beneath the protecting folds and converse
freely. The same is true when one hand of each holds the bridle of a
horse.
The Italian signs are also made in such abbreviated forms as to be
little more than hinted at, requiring a perfect knowledge of the full
and original form before the slight and often furtive suggestion of it
can be understood. Deaf-mutes continually seek by tacit agreement to
shorten their signs more and more. While the original of each may be
preserved in root or stem, it is only known to the proficient, as
the root or stem of a plant enables botanists, but no others, to
distinguish it. Thus the natural character of signs, the universal
significance which is their peculiarly distinctive feature, may
and often does become lost. From the operation of the principle of
independent and individual abbreviation inherent in all sign language,
without any other cause, that of the Indians must in one or two
generations have become diverse, even if it had in fact originated
from one tribe in which all conceptions and executions were absolute.
_ARE SIGNS CONVENTIONAL OR INSTINCTIVE?_
There has been much discussion on the question whether gesture signs
were originally invented, in the strict sense of that term, or whether
they result from a natural connection between them and the ideas
represented by them, that is whether they are conventional or
instinctive. Cardinal Wiseman (_Essays_, III, 537) thinks that they
are of both characters; but referring particularly to the Italian
signs and the proper mode of discovering their meaning, observes that
they are used primarily with words and from the usual accompaniment of
certain phrases. "For these the gestures become substitutes, and then
by association express all their meaning, even when used alone."
This would be the process only where systematic gestures had never
prevailed or had been so disused as to be forgotten, and were adopted
after elaborate oral phrases and traditional oral expressions had
become common. In other parts of this paper it is suggested that
conventionality chiefly consists in abbreviation, and that signs are
originally self-interpreting, independent of words, and therefore in a
certain sense instinctive.
Another form of the above query, having the same intent, is whether
signs are arbitrary or natural. The answer will depend upon what the
observer considers to be natural to himself. A common sign among
both deaf-mutes and Indians for _woman_ consists in designating the
arrangement of the hair, but such a represented arrangement of
hair familiar to the gesturer as had never been seen by the person
addressed would not seem "natural" to the latter. It would be
classed as arbitrary, and could not be understood without context
or explanation, indeed without translation such as is required from
foreign oral speech. Signs most naturally, that is, appropriately,
expressing a conception of the thing signified, are first adopted and
afterwards modified by circumstances of environment, so as to appear,
without full understanding, conventional and arbitrary, yet they
are as truly "natural" as the signs for hearing, seeing, eating, and
drinking, which continue all over the world as they were first formed
because there is no change in those operations.
_CLASSES OF DIVERSITIES IN SIGNS._
While there is not sufficient evidence that any exhibition of sign
language in any tribe is a dialect derived or corrupted from an
ascertained language in any other tribe, it still is convenient to
consider the different forms appearing in different tribes as several
dialects (in the usual mode of using that term) of a common language.
Every sign talker necessarily has, to some extent, a dialect of his
own. No one can use sign language without original invention and
without modification of the inventions of others; and all such new
inventions and modifications have a tendency to spread and influence
the production of other variations. The diversities thus occasioned
are more distinct than that mere individuality of style or expression
which may be likened to the differing chirography of men who write,
although such individual characteristics also constitute an important
element of confusion to the inexperienced observer. In differing
handwriting there is always an attempt or desire to represent an
alphabet which is essentially determinate, but no such fixedness or
limited condition of form restricts gesture speech.
Those variations and diversities of form and connected significance
specially calling for notice may be: 1st. In the nature of synonyms.
2d. Substantially the same form with such different signification as
not to be synonymous. 3d. Difference in significance produced by
such slight variation in form as to be, to a careless observer,
_symmorphic_.