Recording names in signed languages

Help
1

Hi all,
Odd question that’s likely not common for genealogy research. I’m Deaf, I use a signed language and the name most people refer to me by is visual and doesn’t have a written equivalent.

Is there any way whatsoever to input a video file to gramps to demonstrate my name? If not what are some alternative means to record a signed name in gramps? It’s not a nickname, it’s my primary name, just in a language that is not written and is only directly demonstrable via video.

Additionally I want to note the signed name of the person who gave me my name which also requires video.

Thanks for your help!

I’m using Gramps 5.2.4 on Ubuntu 24.10

2

It does not matter if Media objects are images or video files. Gramps just has a link to the file and uses whatever view program is used by your OS for that type of file.

Other than thumbnails, Gramps doesn’t manage the storage of media.

And media objects are not associated with Name records. They are tied to People as secondary objects.

The only potential workaround might be an animated GIF manually created as a thumbnail for the person’s preferred Media object.

3

There appear to by Python libraries to make American Sign Language (ASL) gesture avatars.

Gramps would need to be enhanced to have name sign storing in its data model for names.

But the refernces I found only mentioned ASL. Gramps tries to support multicultural solutions. If an ASL was added to the multi-lingual features, what other signing cultures would need to be considered?

Please educate us.

4

reference collated by Perplexity.ai

A “name sign” is a unique sign used in Deaf communities to identify a person, functioning as a culturally meaningful alternative to spelling out names. For digital genealogy records, there could be several potential ways to store a name sign:

  • Video File: Record the name sign as a short video clip and save the file path or link in the database.
  • Pose Data: Use tools like MediaPipe or sign language libraries to extract and store pose landmarks (hand and body positions) as structured data, such as arrays or CSV files[2][4].
  • Gloss/Description: Include a text-based description or gloss of the sign for reference.

Python libraries like sign-language-translator can help process, translate, and store sign language data in formats like video, pose vectors, or animation files[2]. This approach lets genealogy software like Gramps support name signs for users from any signing community, not just those using American Sign Language.

Citations:
[1] SignLanguageRecognition · PyPI
[2] sign-language-translator · PyPI
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJCSjXepaAM
[4] Reddit - The heart of the internet
[5] https://data-flair.training/blogs/sign-language-recognition-python-ml-opencv/
[6] 9 Best Python Natural Language Processing (NLP) Libraries | Sunscrapers
[7] Sign Language Processing · GitHub
[8] Reddit - The heart of the internet

Answer from Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/a-deaf-person-introduced-the-c-ciaNBofQQziD.o.fNDy27w?utm_source=copy_output

5

Isn’t there a way that a SoundEx phonetic representation is being stored currently?

Maybe that could be expanded to support additional systems? Like Pose Data arrays/CSVs for sign language representation and Double Metaphone or phonetic representations (such as IPA pronunciation guides with diacritics)