Talk:Chereme

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How can a chereme be considered obsolete and the same as a phoneme when the function is so different. In sign language you can have multiple parts happen at the same time something that is physically impossible in speech. GerardM 15:47, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

The change came when researchers did brain scans and found that cheremes were processed in the same parts of the brain as the phonemes of oral languages. Thus a 'chereme' is a bit like a 'toneme' - English may not have them, but they're cognitively equivalent to the C's and V's and stress English does have. It's a theoretical claim that the difference is merely one of the medium used for language, that all human language is essentially the same. That belief may turn out to be wrong, but it's the current orthodoxy. It's probably also motivated to accord SL's respect by getting them accepted as real languages. kwami 17:12, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

It surprises me that linguists will accept a word whose root is "sound" for something as silent (usually) as a handshape, or that linguists, usually so fond of coining new words, don't want this one. Cheremes (or must I say "sign-language phonemes" - an expression whose awkwardness illustrates the need for this word?) won't be processed in exactly the same part of the brain as phonemes (sorry, "sound-phonemes"?) - mirror neurons will fire in the part of the brain responsible for hand, face and body movement. --Hugh7 (talk) 07:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Greek letters not working

I don't know what all those curly brackets signify, so I couldn't do anything to make the Greek work for "hand" appear.--Hugh7 (talk) 07:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)