When signing the place you live...?

Question

Is it common to make up a sign for where you live and explain via finger spelling or is there signs for ville and city and you learn the sign for the beginning wordEx paintsville sign for paint + ville

Answer 1

My suggestion would be to finger spell the name of the town/city you live in until you meet a Deaf person who can show you if their community has developed a sign name for it. Bigger areas have established sign names (e.g., New York, Miami, Chicago) however for smaller ones it is culturally appropriate to find out from a Deaf person before establishing your own sign even if it makes sense (e.g., Paint+ville).

Answer 2

Interesting question.

It is not appropriate to "make up" a sign for where you live. What you are referring to our the sign-names of cities, towns, communities and states where signers live and each signing community will have developed a standard sign-name for their particular locality. These sign-names will be more or less known widely among signers in general depending on the relative size and importance of the particular locality. So for example the sign for Valdosta, GA will not be widely known among signers in general but the sign for Dallas, TX will be widely known. Most all major cities in the US have standard, widely known and used signs. Any place where deaf people live in any numbers will have a developed sign-name that is used by that community of signers but the sign may not be known and used widely among signers and in that case signers will fingerspell the name of the city, town or locality if they have to talk about it. They will not invent a sign of their own for it. It is not the case in general that a place will be known by a half fingerspelled and half signed or a two part signed phrase as in your example "PAINT + VILLE". A sign name like that for a place named PAINTSVILLE would generally be considered a violation of how sign language creates meaning. There are exceptions to every rule in any language but in general that is now how sign names are created.

There is a book called Name Signs by Sam Supulla that sheds light on the rules governing name signs. And while it doesn't cover the creation of name signs for cities the general principles of how name signs are created would be interesting for you since you are interested in this topic.

Regards

Bill