Lost one of my heroes today. Slinger Francisco, also known as Mighty Sparrow, passed away at 91. Trinidad's most famous calypsonian, always infusing his songs with sharp political wit and humor. A friend and influence to many, including Van Dyke Parks. Here he is performing "Jean & Dinah."

Farewell to the immortal Dr Slinger Franscisco, the Mighty Sparrow, genius, Calypso King of the World! www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksyN... @elizacarthy.bsky.social

Good Morning Mr Walker (Slinger and Norma go To The Dancehall Mix)- Eliza Carthy and the Restitution

YouTube video by Eliza Carthy

youtube.com

Our latest data shows that the percentage of our participants' Wikipedia articles flagged as being written by AI has decreased since we began interventions in mid-2025. Explore how we handle generative AI usage, why verifiability remains a top concern, and what comes next: wp.me/p4LBez-XMK

Generative AI and Wikipedia: The last six months

In January, Wiki Education published a widely read blog post about our experiences with Wikipedia editing and generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. It sparked lots of co…

wp.me

Any sign language linguists with views on projects around 'AI' based automated translation between signed and spoken langs? I think this is both terrible and unfeasible for the Caribbean, but I don't have much contact with sl linguists since the twitter exodus, and am curious about what others think

I thought of my body as untrustworthy, an adversary. I often joked that I wished I had no body at all, was simply a brain in a jar. Without my body holding me back I could get a lot more work done. My journey out of that way of thinking is what follows in Mother Tongue buttondown.com/signs+wonder...

The Body is a Mother

The writer as human

buttondown.com

Hiiiii, feel free to keep deaf people out of this! So sick of the condescension disguised as faux concern about how disabled people "need" AI. We don't. Autocaptions are almost always very bad, and then people like you use their existence to justify taking away actual accommodations that work.

Also ICYMI: Here's the book baby, arriving promptly on 5 May. (Unlike human baby, who will no doubt come when they please.) www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670270...

Mother Tongue by Sara Novic: 9780593241530 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Maybe this is a literary trope. Maybe people need that fantasy, that hope for a rainbow. I wrote BYE BYE I LOVE YOU because I believe people can find comfort in the real. This is how it's going to end. Probably in silence. Last words will be yours, not his. Also, terminal lucidity is very rare.

Hey SLPs/Deafies/other people who deal with ASHA. I know for a while there was contention re: whether a deaf-signing person could give a presentation at ASHA in ASL or be a certified SLP. To what degree was that "official" policy, and is that still the case?

Linguists will really say "the forbidden experiment" like people aren't performing it on the majority of deaf children in this country every day 💀

@davidmcgaughey.bsky.social On the off-chance that you weren't already aware, I felt duty-bound to draw your attention to Jasper Scarrott, darts player www.facebook.com/share/v/1Mkr...

I'd love to hear any feedback on this position statement we have developed. It aims to clearly communicate to students our approach to using AI, and the underlying reasons and motivations for our approach. Would you use something like this in your teaching? What changes would you make?

Lauren Gawne@superlinguo.bsky.social · last yr.

The Linguistics Discipline at La Trobe University have developed a discipline-specific position statement on the role of generative AI in our classrooms. www.superlinguo.com/post/7908973...

And besides—what about the pool of human translators, especially deaf translators, who see mediocre AI taking over work they can still do much better?

In honor of the new home for #ASLSignbank, I thought it was time to give #Glossgesang a home on Bluesky. What's #Glossgesang you ask? Why thank you for asking! It's this: Always present signed language data in a visual format without relying solely on glossing

Fundraiser for my collaborator Erik Arellano a Deaf Mexican linguist to attend summer school in Berlin

Donate to Deaf researcher from Mexico to attend summer school, organized by Shane Gilchrist

Erik Arellano, a passionate Deaf researcher from Mexico, has this … Shane Gilchrist needs your support for Deaf researcher from Mexico to attend summer school

gofundme.com

I’m constantly reminded of how deaf linguists esp. from the Global South, make a unique contribution to signed language linguistics especially when it comes to researching their own signed languages. Yet they are constantly denied educational opportunities in higher academia.

Does anyone have any advice for how to develop better writing habits as a late-diagnosed ADHD academic? I want to write a book or two, but struggle enormously with the this kind of big task. How does one avoid either hyper-focusing for a week then burning out, or just getting overwhelmed? Help!

Can anyone recommend research supporting the need for deaf children to have early access to a *community of signers*, including peers and adults, not just one or two signing teachers? Thanks!

Last year I published an article with Fahimah Ali called "Multimodal Languaging in a Signing Community in the Bay Islands of Honduras" about ways in which deaf-blind people in a small community use language. So here's a thread to get me started on here. muse.jhu.edu/article/928057

Just write alt text ya weenies

(Graeber 2015)

Lina Hou’s keynote, MIND-PING: Grammars and Epistemologies, challenges us to rethink multilanguage, knowledge, and Eurocentric Deaf epistemologies 🙌🏽 #Sign10 @linasigns.bsky.social

I'm slowly uploading pictures from #Sign10 in Trinidad for all that couldn't attend. It was worth all the effort to attend. #Sign10 invited the local deaf communities to attend the conference. I met so many people, think I left a bit of my heart with them in Trinidad.

Nicky Macias’s presentation explores how embracing nonbinary focal sites empowers multiple identities and fosters inclusivity in multilingual sign languages #Sign10

Kris M. Ali’s presentation delves into the challenges of interpreting Queer and Trans sign languaging in Trinidad. #Sign10

I found motivation when I attended the panel discussion on the Deaf Caribbean Academic Network at #Sign10. I was empowered to see how the deaf academics used Video Diaries and in person meetings to help cope with inequities and inaccessibilities in education.

Presenting was super fun at #Sign10. Thank you for allowing me to present my research on how deaf community members determined that African American English and culture can be successfully conveyed in ASL. (Thx hubby for the flowers!)

Regional signs matter. Marina and Ricarde’s presentation on classifiers and intermodal contact in Puerto Rican Sign Language shows how diversity enriches communication and culture. #Sign10

Yarett Piñeiro Rodríguez's presentation “Attitudes to sign language naming and variation in Puerto Rico” highlights the importance of protecting Puerto Rican Sign Language and embracing its variations. #Sign10

Keynote presentation: Danielle Thompson - ‘Nothing about us without us’ to ‘Nothing Without Us’: The fight for legal recognition of sign language and communication access for the deaf in the Caribbean #Sign10