Dwar id-Dizzjunarju
Id-dizzjunarju online tal-Lingwa tas-Sinjali Maltija (LSM) għandu jservi ta’ riżorsa importanti kemm għall-kommunità Deaf kif ukoll għal kull min hu interessat jitgħallem din il-lingwa. Imma għandu jkun ta’ għajnuna wkoll għall-interpreti tal-LSM.
Id-dizzjunarju għandu serje ta’ lemmi li wieħed jista’ jfittixhom bis-saħħa ta’ glossa bil-Malti u bl-Ingliż. Kull waħda minn dawn il-glossi tikkostitwixxi tikketta bl-Ingliż jew bil-Malti li tkun l-iktar qrib it-tifsira tas-sinjal fil-LSM. Idealment biex nużaw id-dizzjunarju għandna nkunu nistgħu nfittxu s-sinjal innifsu, imma ħaġa bħal din tista’ tiġri biss meta nkunu nistgħu nfittxuh billi nħaddmu s-simboli li jintużaw fil-Kitba tas-Sinjali (jew SignWriting).
Kull lemma għandha għadd ta’ partijiet differenti u hemm mill-inqas video-clip waħda għal kull lemma: din titqies il-parti prinċipali tagħha. Fejn nafu b’iktar minn sinjal wieħed, dan ninkluduh ukoll. Imma hemm xi varjazzjonijiet li nispjegawhom mingħajr ma ninkludu video-clip għalihom.
Hemm serje ta’ stampi nnumerati minn 1 sa 3 li juru l-punti indikattivi ta’ kull video-clip. Dawn huma riżorsa importanti kemm għar-riċerkaturi kif ukoll għal kull min juża d-dizzjunarju.
Il-video-clips huma kollha miktuba bis-sistema tal-Kitba tas-Sinjali ta’ Valerie Sutton. Il-fatt li l-lemmi huma miktuba bis-sinjali jista’ jkun ta’ għajnuna lil kull min juża d-dizzjunarju, u jista’ jgħinu wkoll biex jitgħallem jikteb is-sinjali. Din is-sistema hija mezz effiċenti kif sinjal ġdid wieħed jista’ jiktbu bil-ħeffa, speċjalment meta ma jkunx jista’ jirrekordjah bil-video l-ewwel darba li jarah. Dil-ħaġa għandha tixpruna it-tagħlim tal-kitba fil każ tat-tfal Deaf li biex jikkomunikaw jużaw il-Lingwa tas-Sinjali Maltija.
Hemm stampi għall-parti l-kbira tal-lemmi li għandhom x’jaqsmu mal-annimali. Dawn huma xogħol il-kontributur Deaf Robert Zammit.
Fl-aħħar nett, is-sinjali kollha niddeskrivuhom kemm bil-Malti kif ukoll bl-Ingliż għax nassumu li min se juża d-dizzjunarju jkun jaf mill-inqas waħda minn dawn il-lingwi miktuba jekk mhux it-tnejn li huma. Ninkludu wkoll xi informazzjoni grammatikali fejn din teżisti. Naturalment id-dizzjunarju għadu mhux lest: nittamaw li nkunu nistgħu nlestuh meta nsibu fondi biżżejjed biex jitkompla x-xogħol u biex niċċekkjaw dak kollu li ninkludu fih u kif indaħħluh.
About the Dictionary
The online Maltese Sign Language (LSM) dictionary is intended as an important resource for the Deaf community and all who are learning the language. It should also be useful to LSM interpreters.
The dictionary contains entries searchable through Maltese and English glosses. These glosses are the closest equivalent label in English (or Maltese) to the meaning of the sign in LSM. Ideally, a dictionary should enable us to look for the sign itself. That will only happen when we can search through the symbols used in SignWriting.
Every entry has a number of parts. Each entry consists of at least one video-clip which could be considered the primary part. Where more than one sign is known, the other sign(s) is(are) included. A few variations are described with no video-clip.
The picture-sequences showing between 1 and 3 indicative points for every video-clip are an important resource for a variety of reasons both for researchers and other users.
All video-clips are signwritten using the Valerie Sutton Signwriting System. The signwriting of the entries can be beneficial to many dictionary users and leads them to learn to write signs. It is an efficient means to record new signs easily even when they cannot be video-recorded when first seen. It should become a useful motivator for literacy in deaf children who use LSM.
There are illustrations for most of the animal entries by Robert Zammit, a Deaf contributor. Illustrations of other volumes may be added in the future.
Finally, all the signs are described in both Maltese and English since users are expected to be familiar with one or both of these written languages. Some grammatical information is added where this is available. Naturally, the dictionary is not yet complete. We hope that it will be completed when funds can be found to continue to work on it and monitor what goes into it and how it is entered.