Fedi please help me answer a question that just came up in a conversation.
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Fedi please help me answer a question that just came up in a conversation. I'm specifically looking for input from people from countries where English isn't the primary language. Boost welcome so I can find some more examples.
Does your language/culture use finger quotes?
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I am enjoying the responses to this a lot. I was thinking about it because when I was studying overseas I had a classmate (and I forget who it was now but I think it was one of my classmates from an Asian country) who asked me "why do Americans do that what does that mean" because they had seen it in American TV shows. So I was really curious how widespread this was. I did at least know it wasn't just America, but since it's mimicking the use of quotes in written English to denote sarcasm/skepticism it's definitely tied to language to some degree.
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@lori As far as I know, it's originally from some dialects of American English, but a number of people who think in an American English or even have been exposed to it via TV or Youtube also do this. In Germany, it's a bit weird, but not unheard of. In Sweden, I've only seen it done by English speakers speaking English. In Ireland, it's uncommon, but happens, and people seem to recognise it. I haven't seen a Gaelic speaker doing them, but I suppose it'll eventually happen.
Speakers of the various sign languages would probably have different perspective on gesticulated punctuation, FWIW. I'm afraid I'm not fluent in any sign language.
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@riley Now I'd like to hear from someone who knows sign language if this is part of ASL with the same meaning, like does this denote sarcasm in ASL?
(I'm assuming ASL otherwise I'm getting into a rabbit hole of "does this gesture exist in every other form of sign language too" and at some point I need to quit digging into this rabbithole lol)
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@lori IIRC, ASL has a close relative in Europe (French Sign Language, maybe?). But the split was more than a century ago, and backflow of new signs from ASL to its European parent language might not be particularly rapid.
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@lori It's pretty common in Hungary.