Free Gesticulation

[Raf]

Just got to thinking the other day about the guy who faked sign language next to Obama and all those other speakers at the Mandela memorial celebration this week. All sorts of hand movements pretending to be interpreting what the speaker was saying. But the reality was he was "speaking" nonsense. It wasn't a language.

I'm not aware of how many forms of sign language there are, but it's pretty clear he wasn't "speaking" any.

Hey, maybe he was free gesticulating -- you know, making hand movements in some long-forgotten form of sign language no longer in use today. That doesn't negate it as a language. Prove he wasn't signing a real language! Go on, prove it!

Just... on my mind.

[HAPe4me]

he may have been speaking a language...but he said the same 4 or 5 words over and over for 3 hours. Where have I seen that done before?

[waysider]

A friend of a friend of mine told me he understood every word the guy was signing.

[Ham]

I heard that somebody signed in high german once..

[WordWolf]

Experts have pointed out that the man was not using any known sign language,

and there was no structure to the gestures he was making,

so he was not using a known language, nor an unknown language because it

didn't match the structure of sign languages.

So, it was neither a known nor an unknown language.

I don't know if that's enough to close the case for everyone,

but it sure is enough for me.

[waysider]

"I don't know if that's enough to close the case for everyone."

Can we get a show of hands?

Edited December 15, 2013 by waysider

[waysider]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/15/obama-gets-the-fake-sign-language-interpreter-treatment-on-snl/

[GeorgeStGeorge]

Experts have pointed out that the man was not using any known sign language,

and there was no structure to the gestures he was making,

so he was not using a known language, nor an unknown language because it

didn't match the structure of sign languages.

So, it was neither a known nor an unknown language.

I don't know if that's enough to close the case for everyone,

but it sure is enough for me.

Maybe it was a "signing of angels." :)

George