Would it make sense for “rhyme” to rhyme with “time”?
Or for “through” to rhyme with “two”?
Some Deaf people can still hear, in which case rhymes would make sense.
Someone who’s never heard before probably wouldn’t get rhymes in English. But then again, someone who speaks English probably wouldn’t get rhymes in ASL.
People who can hear would have an advantage though in that they’d be able to learn ASL and pick up on wordplay (like “rhyming”) that’s used in ASL. Unless a Deaf person becomes Hearing, they may never be able to experience rhymes in spoken English.
… it’d be easier if our spelling wasn’t so darned stupid, lol
I’m not sure why you’re crying, but you’re incorrect.
It is surprising to many people outside of the Deaf Community, but Deaf people can often hear. The Deaf are considered deaf once they have passed a certain decibel (dB) hearing loss. Many people who are profoundly deaf can still hear planes, dogs barking, etc. Hearing a sound does not mean that Deaf people can understand speech. A person with a significant hearing loss generally has difficulty or inability to hear speech even when aided.
https://www.gatecommunications.org/deafness
As well, people with cochlear implants are (generally?) also Deaf, but with the implant, they can hear.
Do you have a link to a more reputable site? Gate communications is an American thing.
our spelling isn’t stupid, it’s just what you get when you mix latin with germanic and pepper in minor influences from a dozen other language families.
I’m sure in a few more centuries, ryme and tyme will have convergently evolved to become false cognates.
I wouldn’t have expected rhyming to be possible in any sign language. It strikes me as being too dependent on hearing the sounds for the rhyme to be possible. I’m no authority on any of the components here, and would be interested to know how fully always deaf ASL users can make or understand rhymes. I would expect them to be more focused on visual similarities, but I don’t know if that could translate from writing to signing.
As the other commenter said, rhymes would be with visual similarities.
Linguistically, a rhyme is when two words share the same nucleus and coda. In regular terms, that’s the same ending vowel and the consonants that follow it.
In ASL, words aren’t formed exactly the same way, but do have similar components that can be used to make rhymes. Rhyming words could have the same motion, but a different shape, for example. Or the same position, but a different motion.
I don’t actually speak ASL, so I can’t be certain about what looks best as a rhyme, but I understand some of the principles.
Spoken rhymes rely on repeating a similar sound. I imagine a “rhyme” in sign language would probably involve repeating a similar gesture. The fun of rhymes is in the similarity and repetition, after all. If two (or more) signs involve making a similar pattern, it’s probably amusing to pair them together in the same way it’s amusing to pair two rhyming spoken words.
