Manual Fotolk
| Manual Fotolk | |
|---|---|
| North Mirarian Sign Language | |
| Ethnicity | Fotolk Patuk Lakup |
| Native speakers | 150,000 (no date) |
| Language family | Manually encoded form of Fotolk (possibly a creole with one or more isolate sign languages)
|
| Official status | |
| Official language in | Kasiiralq, Fazulavaz |
| CWS code | – |
Manual Fotolk or North Mirarian Sign Language is a signed language used extensively by various vodholk and human communities across Northern Miraria. Its precise origins are disputed, although it is generally considered to have originated either as a manual-visual form of the Fotolk language, or as a creole between a manual form of Fotolk and one or more unknown sign languages. Unlike its spoken counterpart (considered endagered by the IC), it is in rigorous use across both deaf and spoken communities across the region. Although it does have some key syntactic differences from its spoken form, they are considered by ethnic Fotolk to be two channels of the same language; both forms of the language are natively written with a pictographic script representing the manual form.
A third channel of the language complex exists, the manual-tactile form, used for communication between deaf and blind speakers, or by the deaf-blind.
Phonology
Manual Vodholk uses only 16 hand-shapes for the dominant hand, and the nondominant hand ranges between 16 to a mere 5 shapes depending on speaker preference and ability. See this article for images and more explanation.
Orthography
The Vodholk language natively uses an ideographic writing system based on the manual language form.
Lexicon
Signs are categorized as Neutral or Specified and Directional or Static.
Neutral signs can be made in any sign space, whereas Specified signs depend on their placement (often in contact with the face or body) as part of their semantic component. For example, many bird signs are created in the "sky" position, and many food signs as well as verbs like "eat" make contact with the mouth.
Directional signs make use of directivity (see morphology) to indicate agent/patient, motion, or other features. Static signs cannot use directivity, but may involve motion as part of the lexeme or as a modifier (for example, many signs involve tapping, shaking, or rotation). Most Specified signs are also Static, but there are exceptions.
Grammar
Morphology
Directivity is a key component in verbs in Manual Vodholk, which functions similarly to either a polypersonal verb agreement or a simple adpositional phrase in the spoken form. By moving the hands while forming the sign, the speaker communicates agent, patient, and sometimes motion or indirect objects.
Syntax
Word order is best described as topic-comment with an SOV preference, however many utterances have free word order due to the availability of sign-space and directional signs to indicate action-direction.