Conrad Svendsens beskrivelse av norsk tegnspråk

Abstract

This text presents an introductory investigation of Conrad Svendsen’s analysis of Norwegian Sign Language, as it appears in a set of handwritten notes that have been preserved after him, supposedly from around 1910. The notes are significant for the history of the field, since little material has been preserved about Norwegian Sign Language before the end of the 20th century. Svendsen was an important personality, at first in Christiania’s [Oslo’s] community for the education of deaf children, then in the Church’s services for the deaf community, and finally in the establishment of a «home for the deaf». Since Svendsen’s own sign language political views have paradoxical features, it is interesting to find out to what extent he had a real understanding of what sign language is. The introductory investigation concludes that Svendsen had a good understanding of many aspects of Norwegian Sign Language and also was able to articulate well his pedagogical presentation of the material. However, he seems to assume that the sign language is less conventionalized than we have a reason today to believe that it may have been in his day. And to be able to assess how autonomous his understanding was, a closer investigation is needed of how he may have been influenced by earlier authors, not least in the German-speaking world.

Keywords

• Norwegian Sign Language
• History of sign language linguistics
• Conrad Svendsen
• Language documentation