lullaby

In sign language "lullaby" is shown, "slap a baby."

I just wanted to mention it. It came up again.

Apparently there is a new movie in which Renee Zellweger plays Judy Garland, because I'm seeing mention of it all over the place along with previews.

Because the singer heard of a place over a rainbow from some lullaby.

Some dictionaries show "lullaby" simply as "music."

See the same guy showing both words.

lullaby

music

baby

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

I got it wrong.

Sorry.

I see what he's doing now. I didn't see that at first. Oh man, do I ever feel stupid now.

He's saying "music + sleep" for lullaby. Not "baby + music"

My bad.

Nobody is slapping a baby.

Oh man. All these years I've been doing Over the Rainbow song wrong.

Okay fine. Here's something else that's better than that.

This happens all the time because all over the world people are obsessed with extravagant titles. Like "Assistant Deputy Secretary of State" so when you're interpreting for government or for news then you're going to encounter these strings quite a lot and you have to deal with them.

And fast.

"Secretary of State is so cool because it is so clear, so definite. Each word is two motions and the two sets of motions are made for each other.

You might think, or your body might automatically show, "write + person" for secretary, but that actually means "writer." The sign for secretary is "secret + write" except this time the "write" is shown as a zip across the palm of the hand instead of scribbling something on the palm of the hand. It's very fast writing. So fast that it's a single line drawn on the hand. Quickly.

Secretary. He's showing "secret write" with no personification sign to it.

Now, that "write" is using both hands. A hand holding a pen and the other hand a tablet being written on; a vague "A" hand configuration for holding a pen and an open palm being written on.

"State" is shown an upward open palm hand tapped with an "S" hand configuration, at the top then slid down to the bottom. So it goes boink boink.

Your hands are right there ready to be reconfigured. From zip-write to state. And the transition from horizontal open palm to vertical open palm and the slapping an "S" top to bottom is so visually striking that the two signs together "write" and "state" are splendid.

Try it. "secret write state." That feels so cool when you do it.

There are different kinds of "state." The kind of state like "say" and the kind of state like "a statement", or "a sentence." That's why you must be thinking in terms of concepts and not thinking in terms of English words. You have to be thinking, okay, how do I show what mean? Not, okay, now how do I say that word? There is a difference there that must be appreciated or else you'll look like a goofball and have people wondering what you're trying to say. Your interlocutor will be thinking, "these English speakers are like Shakespeare.

So the kind of "state" that's a geographical place nicely goes with the kind of "write" that is used for a fast writing secretary.

Our secretary is a stenographer, not a high government official.

Isn't that odd?

We're showing the English word (secretary) and not showing the concept (high government official). We're breaking our main rule, but there you go. That's how extravagant titles are. They fake you out in English too.

Maybe you should just say "SOS."

So there you have it, "secret + write fast + state" and it goes bang bang bang bang and that's why I like it so much.

But then you have "assistant" and that's shown as "help" except formed with two "A" hand configurations instead of a palm hand lifting up a fist hand. Same idea but now it's two "A" hand shapes.

The guy in the video clips is showing the textbook versions. You don't see them like this in the world at large. You don't stick an  upright "A" thumb into the butt hole of the other hand's "A" form. It's just one "A" hand form lifting up another "A" hand form as with "help."

And "help" isn't lifting up a fist and repositioning it to the side, that takes too long, rather, it's just lifting it up a little bit. That's what you see all the time.

"Deputy" means the same thing as "Assistant" so what we have is a redundancy. And those things bum me out. Because we're s-o-o-o tidily precise in English and so conceptual in sign. Do you really want to show "assistant assistant secret write state?"

Ew, I hate these conundrums. Problems brought on by our stupid long titles. And they're all irrelevant anyway. I don't care if you are deputy secretary of state or assistant secretary of sate or deputy assistant secretary of state. The only person who cares is the person with the extravagantly long title. Because to them it means being G17 or being G18 or something stupid like that. They really goof you up when you're translating the news. So F you, boring government drone. You don't get translated. I'm out.