“She holds me tight, sings pretty lullabies…”
What is a lullaby? Figuring out how to show this concept in ASL was one of the decisions I had to make when writing NNN. When English is the source language and ASL is the target language, understanding the meaning is important. American Sign Language is not a word-for-word translation of the English language. The signs used must convey the meaning.
What is a lullaby? According to Webster, it is a song used to lull a child to sleep. This is a common component of the bedtime ritual. Most people sing to their babies at night…don’t they? In our home, the usual line up was; “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “You are My Sunshine” (they grew up thinking I wrote that one), “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” and ”Eensy Weensy Spider”. When I was raising my children, each of these classic selections would be easily recognized by any child. Which is the reason I decided upon “Eensy Weensy Spider” to represent the song the mother signs to our girl. Once the reader recognizes the song, a visual is created. The scene is set.
Actually, it was my a friend who suggested that it would be a good idea to insert the song here. I loved the idea because it draws the picture and creates the mental image that is appropriate here.
By the way, what is the sign for eensy weensy? There isn’t one. I invoked a bit of creative license with this one and treated it as a universal symbol. I expected my readers would recognize it in the same way one would a peace sign.
A lullaby is a song. The sign for song is also the sign for sang, sing, sung and singing. Lullabies are comfort food for the ears. People carry memories of the voices that sang them to sleep in their early years. Likewise, for the babies who couldn’t hear the words. They remember feeling the vibrations of the sound coming from the body that enfolded them in a warm embrace. Night after night the faint familiar sound of these melodies comforted them in the same ways. When mom or dad signed the song, the fluid rhythmic movements achieve the same result. Hence the universal experience of parents, little ones and night night.
Pairing the sign for song in a sentence with a well-known lullaby, while following grammatical rules for ASL, conveys the message intended.
There is no sign for lullaby.
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