MSW:Symbol Set

5. Symbol Set
The ISWA 2010 is a mathematical alphabet. It is the end result of 8 years of standardization efforts with writers from around the world. Serious standardization efforts were started in 2004 with the International MovementWriting Alphabet. These efforts refocused with the ISWA 2008. These efforts were realized for the symbol set with the ISWA 2010.

Valerie Sutton created and named each symbol of the ISWA 2010 with a definitive image and a normative ID. Steve Slevinski reflected Valerie's design though visual and mathematical models.

The normative IDs structure the symbols as a hierarchy with 6-degree of features. A symbol ID is a sequence of six formatted numbers of increasing detail. The first dashed number defines the Category (11). The first two dashed numbers define the SymbolGroup (11-22). The first four dashed numbers define a BaseSymbol (11-22-333-44). The fifth number represents the fill (55). The sixth number represents the rotation (66). A symbol ID is a combination of BaseSymbol ID with a fill value and a rotation value. A symbol ID has the format "nn-nn-nnn-nn-nn-nn", where each "n" is a digit from 0 to 9.

The ISWA 2010 is fully documented and available under the Open Font License with a file based font, either PNG or SVG, either individual files or XML.

5.A.1. Writing Symbols
The writing symbols of SignWriting represent a visual conception: either hands, movement, dynamics, timing, head, face, trunk, or limb. The body concept is a combination of trunk and limb. The writing symbols are used in 2 dimensional clusters to create one or more morphemes: the smallest semantically meaningful units in a language. The symbols do not change size or shape when combined in a visual pattern. The symbols can overlap and obscure symbols underneath.

5.A.2. Detailed Location Symbols
Detailed location symbols are used individually or sequentially. They represent isolated analysis that is written outside the 2 dimensional cluster.

5.A.3. Punctuation Symbols
Punctuation symbols are used when writing sentences. They are used individually, between clusters.

5.B. Categories (7)
Category 1: Hands Handshapes from over 40 Sign Languages are placed in 10 groups based on the numbers 1-10 in American Sign Language.

Category 2: Movement Contact symbols, small finger movements, straight arrows, curved arrows and circles are placed into 10 groups based on planes: The Front Wall Plane includes movement that is “parallel to the front wall” and the Floor Plane includes movement that is “parallel to the floor”.

Category 3: Dynamics Dynamics Symbols are used mostly with Movement Symbols and Punctuation Symbols, to give the "feeling" or "tempo" to movement. They also provide emphasis on a movement or expression, and combined with Puncuation Symbols become the equivalent to Exclamation Points. The Tension Symbol, combined with Contact Symbols, provides the feeling of 'pressure", and combined with facial expressions can place emphasis or added feeling to an expression. Timing symbols are used to show alternating or simultaneous movement.

Category 4: Head & Faces Starting with the head and then from the top of the face and moving down. Group 22 includes head movement and views of the head. Groups 23-26 include detailed facial expressions and movement of parts of the face and neck.

Category 5: Body Torso movement, shoulders, hips, and the limbs are used in Sign Languages as a part of grammar, especially when describing conversations between people, called Role Shifting, or making spatial comparisons between items on the left and items on the right. This category is important when writing sign language storytelling and poetry. All sign languages have some signs that point below the hips, or touch the torso, or hunch the shoulders, or touch the arms and wrists.

Category 6: Detailed Location Detailed Location symbols are used in the SignSpelling Sequence and not in the Spatial SignSpelling. May be useful for sorting large dictionaries, refining animation, simplifying translation between scripts and notation systems, and for detailed analysis of location sometimes needed in linguistic research.

Category 7: Punctuation Punctuation Symbols are used when writing complete sentences or documents in SignWriting. The Punctuation Symbols do not look like the symbols for punctuation in English, but they do have similar meanings. SignWriting punctuation symbols include a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point and so forth.

5.C. SymbolGroups (30)
There are 30 SymbolGroups. The first 2 dashed numbers in the symbol ID identify the group. The 30 groups can be divided into 3 sets of 10. The first ten are hands, category 1. The second ten are movements, category 2. The third ten are categories 3 thru 7. In order, 1 group for the Dynamics & Timing category, 1 for Head, 4 for Face, 1 for Trunk, 1 for Limb, 1 for Detailed Location, and 1 for Punctuation.

5.D. BaseSymbols (652)
There are 652 BaseSymbols. The first 4 dashed numbers of a symbol ID identify the base. The 652 bases are divided between the 30 groups. For each group, there are less than 60 bases. The bases are often displayed in columns of 10.The details of the individual BaseSymbols is beyond the scope of this document. Please refer to the ISWA 2010 HTML Reference or any of Valerie Sutton's ISWA 2010 documents.

5.E. Symbols (37,811)
The symbols are variably sized; they do not share a common height or width. The symbols are static; they do not rotate or morph. Each symbol has a unique name as the symbol ID.

The symbol ID is a six part number formatted for zero padding with a mask of "xx-xx-xxx-xx-xx-xx-xx". The six individual numbers of the symbol ID listed by order are: category, group, base, variation, fill, rotation.

The first number by itself identifies the Category, together with the second number identifies the SymbolGroup ID.

The third number identifies the BaseSymbol place, usually with an "01" for the fourth number: variation. When more than one BaseSymbols share the first three numbers, the fourth number will order these BaseSymbols with variation numbers starting from 1.

The fifth and six numbers uniquely define an individual symbol. They are used to place symbols on a 6 by 16 palette. Each BaseSymbol has a unique symbol palette that lists the symbols on a 6 by 16 grid with valid columns and valid rows. Any cell on a valid column and a valid row is valid and must identify a symbol. Any cell on an invalid column or an invalid row does not represent a symbol and is invalid.

The fill modifier can best be understood through the palm facing of the hand graphemes. The palm facing is based on planes. The SignWriting script uses two planes: the Front Wall (Frontal Plane) and the Floor (Transverse Plane). There are 6 palm facings. The first three palm facings are parallel with the Front Wall. The second three palm facings are parallel with the Floor. The reader can view the signer from different viewpoints (expressive or receptive) and can view the hands from different perspectives (front or top), but no matter what the viewpoint or perspective, the first three Fills represent the palm facing parallel to the Front Wall and the second three Fills represent the palm facing parallel to the Floor.

The fill modifier is redefined for the movement arrows of category 2.

The rest of the other bases use a fill modifier for grouping and visual organization that is meaningful only for a particular base symbol or small set.

The rotation modifier can best be understood through the hand symbols. The first 8 rotations progress 45 degrees counter clockwise. The last 8 rotations are a mirror of the first 8 and progress 45 degrees clockwise. Zero (0) degrees is understood to point to the top of the grapheme.