Big D

No, not Dallas, but Deaf vs. deaf, a meaning distinction (a sociocultural identity vs. merely hearing-impaired) easily made in print, but not so easily in speech, as I noted in a 11/22/14 posting. But in speech, Susan Fischer tells me, the distinction can be made as “big-D deaf” vs. “little-d deaf”. (I was hoping for the briefer /dɛf/ vs. /dif/.)

Then I asked Susan about how this worked in ASL, hoping for something more interesting. But no; apparent you just sign BIG-D DEAF vs. LITTLE-D DEAF.

Now on the song “Big D”, from Wikipedia:

“Big D” is a song about Dallas, Texas written by Frank Loesser in 1956 for the musical The Most Happy Fella. It repeatedly spells out the name of Dallas with the refrain: Big D, little A, double L, A, S.

You’re from Big D, I can guess.

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