The primary goal of this project is to extend the current SignTyp database. SignTyp is primarily a research tool for the comparative study of the phonetics, phonology and morphology of words in sign languages. The database, which currently contains signs from 5 sign languages, does not cover sentence structure. Fifteen globally dispersed sign languages (some endangered and never documented before) will be selected and added to the database. For each language, 1000 signs for common concepts will be collected using prompts consisting of pictures, drawings, and videoclips. The videotapes of the signs will be transcribed in SignWriting (which will capture the visual properties of the signs) and this transcription will then be converted into the SignTyp coding system. Each transcription will be accompanied by glosses in both English and the spoken language of the surrounding community. All of these materials will be combined to create small on-line searchable dictionaries for each language. While sign language researchers will want to focus on the more technical SignTyp coding system which allows for unlimited aggregate queries on phonetic, phonological, morphological and semantic characteristics of signs within and across all the languages in the database, users of sign languages, sign language students, interpreters, teachers, and anyone with an interest in sign languages can look up a sign in any of the languages, using the more accessible SignWriting transcriptions, glosses, videos, and prompt/pictorial definitions. For example, it will be easy to compare the signs for the same concept in the different languages. This project is important because there are no other crosslinguistic sign language databases of this magnitude, based on a common set of concepts and prompt material, with detailed phonological and phonetic transcriptions and codings, and freely available on the web and as a download.
