Author(s): Graeme Kennedy

∙ Dictionary/Thesaurus

Finalist - 2003 Montana NZ Book Awards, Reference and Anthology category. Many thousands of New Zealanders are familiar with New Zealand Sign Language which, like other natural languages, is a real language - a structured system of handshapes and movements located within a signing space. These form a system of meaning symbols which are able to express ideas, just as words are combined into sentences in spoken languages. This essential guide to the language contains over 2,500 commonly used signs, along with valuable learning tools. Signs are illustrated with line drawings in this bilingual dictionary. Each entry contains information on how to make the sign, its semantic scope, and the words or phrases which can be used to translate the sign. The signs are in handshape order, with a full index of English words and phrases also taking the reader into the dictionary. New Zealand Sign Language was first described in the comprehensive Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language (pub. 1997, now out of print); this major dictionary, containing more than 4,000 signs, is the base for the Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language. Both dictionaries draw on the continuing research of the Deaf Studies Research Unit at Victoria University. As Sir Roy McKenzie wrote of A Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language: 'Deaf people and their language have been invisible and unheard in New Zealand for too long.' This new volume, A Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Sign Language, is a invaluable resource for the Deaf: and for their families, friends and colleagues a 'tremendous opportunity to build a bridge o communication'. Students of New Zealand Sign Language will find this an essential text.