December 2020 – Elizabeth J.M. Hurlbut

December 31, 2020May 13, 2022

THE FINAL WORD

I completed my final addition to MY ASL DICTIONARY on the last day of the year 2020. I discovered almost too late that I had forgotten to include the sign for Advanced Sign Language. For a dictionary on sign language, this was not acceptable. As I had used cartoons of figures from deaf history before, I chose to use a cartoon of William Stokoe for Advanced Sign Language. Unfortunately, the page for this word was already full, so while my dictionary mentions Stokoe in the introduction to sign language page, there was no extra room to include his bio. Quite a shame as his work as a linguist and professor at Gallaudet University legitimized ASL as a National Language. In 1960, he published Sign Language Structure, which had the first use of the term American Sign Language. In 1965 he co-authored A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, the first American Sign Language Dictionary. Perhaps a future edition of MY ASL DICTIONARY will contain this extra information.

I drew a cartoon of a young William Stoke, adding his name to the graduation gown and placing the image of the first American Sign Language dictionary behind him, completing MY ASL DICTIONARY on Thursday, December 31, 2020. Even though a few extra words would be added later, it’s fitting that the final word for the book was Advanced Sign Language with William Stokoe.

December 28, 2020May 13, 2022

BLOWING THE HORN

When the Tellwell Marketing Department sent me a rather humbling questionnaire about my knowledge of marketing and public media I realized I didn’t have the asl sign for Advertise in my dictionary. Keeping with my promise to finish the book by the end of 2020, I completed the sign for Advertise on December 28, 2020, with a few days left to spare. I informed Tellwell of the change, pointing out all the extra words that came with the new sign, and gave them a copy of the updated book.

December 11, 2020May 13, 2022

NUMBER TROUBLE

During my continuing ASL studies, I would often learn new words that were not in my dictionary. With seven years already spent in building this book, if it was ever to be completed and published, continuing to add more pictures was not an option. Stepping away from the finished dictionary, I started my focus on creating new cartoons to advertise my illustrated dictionary.
The joke below is while both competitors’ math skills are correct, only one is answering correctly. My good friend Shannon Stuart pointed out that unless the viewer knows how to count in sign language, the joke is lost.
So I added a display to the contestants’ lecterns to display the answer their hands were giving.
Even though a few new words would find their way into my dictionary before the end of the year, on December 11, 2020, I completed MY ASL DICTIONARY’s first cartoon ad.