# Sign Language Puzzles

I went to a Hitchens vs. Danner debate at Berkeley on Tuesday night.
(The topic was “How Should We Use Our Power”; I took some notes which
I’ll write up soon.) The debate was translated into sign language, and
both Hitchens and Danner used pretty big words—I think about the best
was “otiouse” (Hitchens)—which got me thinking about how the deaf manage
to “read” words like this. I doubt I’ve ever heard anyone _say_ “otiose”
before—but I could guess what it was because it’s at least pronounced
pretty much as it’s spelt. Is the ASL version of _otiose_ equally
transparent? Or do you spell unusual words syllable-by-syllable?

Also: the audience was almost entirely white. There were some Asians,
but I don’t remember seeing any African-Americans. This was particularly
obvious because I took the subway back from Berkeley to San Francisco;
lots of African-Americans were on the subway. (I don’t know what to make
of this.)