Would it make sense for “rhyme” to rhyme with “time”?
Or for “through” to rhyme with “two”?
“Deaf” just means that you have such profound hearing loss that you can’t communicate verbally properly, most deaf people do register sound albeit very badly.
I, for instance, have about 75 dB hearing loss, I don’t hear people walking, and barely register high heels on tiles, I don’t hear cars driving either, but I do hear it when they sound the horn; to give an idea of my deafness.
But I do know what spoken languages sound like, and what rhyming means. And how weird English spelling is, compared to its pronunciation. (English is my second/third language after Dutch and DSL, if that matters)
That said, there are people who really can’t hear anything, I know someone who’s ossicles (bones inside the ear, vital for hearing) don’t make contact, he’s never heard anything. He’s aware certain words sound alike and (in Dutch) mostly when their spelt the same, but only because school / people around him told him that.
Someone posted a ASL SLAM poetry video yesterday, and it might give some hints. This isn’t an authoritative answer, just something off-the-cuff.
When ASL is translated into English for poetry, 95% of the time it’s lost in translation. That’s why I ask the interpreters not to translate the poems. You have rhyme in the English poetry and patterns of verbal repetition. ASL is more about the movement, a visual rhyme versus an auditory rhyme.
Granted, that’s referring to ASL-native poetry versus English poetry translated to ASL. But, from that, it would seem that no, rhymes don’t make a lot of sense in the same way they do for spoken poetry assuming the person has no auditory reference for the sound of words.
if you’re talking about text, then deaf rhymes are going to in a very special category. If you ignore the pronunciation, you’re going to find all sorts of interesting rhymes here and there, but they will only work on paper. Also, a deaf poet would miss countless genuine rhymes that just happen to have messy spelling.
In other languages with a more sensible spelling system even deaf people can write poetry that could potentially be appreciated by everyone. English is such a train wreck, that deaf poetry becomes a very special case.
See also: The Chaos, by Gerard Nolst Trenité
I’m very curious about on-paper-only poems
I was unable to find anything better than The Chaos. Not really written by a deaf person, but the idea is still similar. Some parts of the poem look like they should rhyme, but when Lindy actually pronounces the words, you’ll be disappointed to find that they don’t.
Along the same lines, do deaf people compose poems in ASL? What aspect of that language plays the part of rhyme?
I seem to recall that there are rhymes in ASL, where signs for two things have similar motions/shapes/speeds.
It’s true. My sign name is the letter J, for my first name, but one moves the little finger in a circle up by the side of the head, like “Crazy J.” That stuff gets used all the time, but is not always as obvious to non-signing people.
Treat my answer as what it is - hearsay - but the way I remember reading about it being explained, there is indeed sign-language poetry, and gestures having similar or complimentary movements were considered rhyming, which I guess also makes intuitive sense.
Yep, and there is sign language poetry in lots of different sign languages!
It’s a beautiful and unique artform IMO
What is ballet, if not poetry for the deaf?
Huh, as someone who became deaf later in life, and thus still have the “internal monologue”, good question!
It’s always so interesting to me that some folks don’t have that internal monologue.
Me and my internal committee thank you for keeping yours going!
Some hearing people don’t have internal monologue, either!
ASL has their own forms of rhymes or word play, since you don’t hear ASL but you see it. They’ll use similar looking signs.
or so my friend who teaches deaf kids told me when I asked them a few weeks ago.
Some Deaf people can still hear, in which case rhymes would make sense.
Someone who’s never heard before probably wouldn’t get rhymes in English. But then again, someone who speaks English probably wouldn’t get rhymes in ASL.
People who can hear would have an advantage though in that they’d be able to learn ASL and pick up on wordplay (like “rhyming”) that’s used in ASL. Unless a Deaf person becomes Hearing, they may never be able to experience rhymes in spoken English.
… it’d be easier if our spelling wasn’t so darned stupid, lol
Most people who are medically deaf can still hear a bit. Also, deaf and hearing are proper nouns, no need to capitalise them for the NAD’s odd outbursts.
Deaf people can’t hear. That’s what it means to be deaf 😭
I’m not sure why you’re crying, but you’re incorrect.
It is surprising to many people outside of the Deaf Community, but Deaf people can often hear. The Deaf are considered deaf once they have passed a certain decibel (dB) hearing loss. Many people who are profoundly deaf can still hear planes, dogs barking, etc. Hearing a sound does not mean that Deaf people can understand speech. A person with a significant hearing loss generally has difficulty or inability to hear speech even when aided.
https://www.gatecommunications.org/deafness
As well, people with cochlear implants are (generally?) also Deaf, but with the implant, they can hear.
Do you have a link to a more reputable site? Gate communications is an American thing.
You’ve got multiple sources now. It’s good to question things, but you might want to start by questioning the things that you’ve previously learned when encountering new information.
How come you can say someone’s partially deaf when deafness already covers people who can partially hear? Isn’t that redundant?
Yes, it is redundant. The things people can say are not always completely medically accurate.
our spelling isn’t stupid, it’s just what you get when you mix latin with germanic and pepper in minor influences from a dozen other language families.
I’m sure in a few more centuries, ryme and tyme will have convergently evolved to become false cognates.
I don’t get why that’s not stupid. The result of it certainly is! Haha
It also doesn’t help that spellings started to standardize at the same time the great vowel shift was happening
