Lee Orfila
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leeorfila.bsky.social
Lee Orfila
@leeorfila.bsky.social
52 followers 44 following 23 posts
PhD student in sign linguistics at UT Austin | 🧮✌️| I work on documentary linguistics of Mongolian Sign Language | hearing

Техасын Их Сургуулын Аустин хот дахь докторын оюутан | 🧮✌️| Монгол Дохионы Хэлний хэл шинжлэл сурдаг | сонсголтой
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leeorfila.bsky.social
Mongolians are celebrating the end of #IWDP2025 (and the last of the warm weather) with a cornhole and tug-of-war tournament!
A game of tug of war on a soccer field. The two teams consist of five people each, mixed men and women. The teams are standing ready, but the referee is still holding the rope. A few spectators stand on the sidelines, but the crowd is mostly out of frame. The weather is beautiful and sunny. Behind the field, a large park with teees is visible. On the same field, a man is playing cornhole. He is caught mid-throw, with the hackysack in the air. Behind him, several people stand around a table. A large blue-and-white banner hanging on the fence displays text in Mongolian and several logos, including the logo of the International Week of Deaf People and the Mongolian national seal.
September 28, 2025 at 6:24 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
Deaf activist Yumjirdulam presents on a project in progress to submit new legislation for Deaf rights in Mongolia.
Yumjirdulam is a short Mongolian woman with short brown hair and glasses in a dark brown pantsuit. Behind her a screen shows an image of two documents and the logos of government agencies. Six audience members are visible in front of her watching attentively, though most of the audience is out of frame.
September 27, 2025 at 6:22 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
Deaf linguist Byambasuren presents on the structure of the Japanese Federation of the Deaf and ideas that the Mongolian Association can take away.
Byambasuren is a tall Kongolian woman with long dark hair in a blouse and jacket She is signing, hands blurred, in front of a complicated orgizational chart.
September 27, 2025 at 6:17 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
Baasanjav, director of the Deaf Education NGO, presents on what sign language rights mean for deaf people. She is pointing at her hand as she sign RIGHTS.
Baasanjav is a middle-aged Mongolian woman with long black curly hair wearing a black dress and sharp white suit jacket. She stands in front of a acreen showing a bright, neon-pink slide with large Mongolian text that reads "Dohionii helnii erh."
September 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
Mongolian Deaf linguist M. Ganbaatar demonstrates the sign for International Week of the Deaf to attendees.
Ganbaatar is a middle-aged Mongolian man in a navy suit. He is standing in the center of a semicircle ofhairs in front of a screen displaying information in Mongolian about International Week of the Deaf.
September 27, 2025 at 4:50 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
Currently setting up for the meeting of the National Deaf Association of Mongolia. Enkhbaatar, Association president, does a little crowd warm up asking people about the meaning of the flag.
A spacious white conference room with chairs arranged in a circle around a central presentation area with a large screen, some banners for the event, and a bright blue and yellow flag showing an abstracted outline of a hand. At the center a middle aged Mongolian man in a plaid button down and glasses points to the flag. Audience members are mostly out of frame, but one elderly woman is visible raising her hand in an imitation of the image on the flag.
September 27, 2025 at 4:34 AM
leeorfila.bsky.social
My linguistics professor from undergrad, Marc Zender, used to call the Great Vowel Shift as the Great Vowel Movement.

It's the fact that the manufacturer is "UG" that really gets me.
A boxed party game on a store shelf. It is called Irritable Vowels and the tagline reads A word game full of vowel movements." The brand is UG, University Games. The box is playful and colorful, purple with bouncy teal and yellow letters. There is a cutout that shows a plastic, polyhedral object. The side that is visible has a letter A on it.
December 22, 2024 at 11:30 PM
leeorfila.bsky.social
I love an iconic neologism. I feel like these pair nicely.
A tumblr post by questbedhead that reads: “fish don’t even know they're wet” and? you don’t even know you're luft (air equivalent of wet)
December 16, 2024 at 10:46 PM
leeorfila.bsky.social
#SIGN10 was so muh fun! Met so many new people and added so many WhatsApp contacts
A selfie of Lee Orfila, Ethan Hartzell, and Caitie Coons overlooking a bay surrounded by mountains and forests A photo of a group of people dancing on a stage at night. There is a small crowd in the foreground. A photo of Austin German smiling on the bus. Behind him theough the winow are colorful houses and a staircase. A photo of Nick Palfreyman's opening address from the back of the signtorium. The seats are full of people, and a variety of flags are up on the screen.
December 12, 2024 at 11:41 PM
leeorfila.bsky.social
I have a feeling something isn't correct here
A acreenshot of the Google Translate app. The phrase "dungiin sugats" has been translated from Mongolian to English. The English translation is given as "snail lottey."
December 12, 2024 at 3:38 PM
leeorfila.bsky.social
If you're at #SIGN10, come say hi! I'll be presenting a poster on how different sign languages represent numbers tomorrow afternoon in poster room 3.
December 10, 2024 at 4:11 PM
leeorfila.bsky.social
On my way to Sign10 and there's a loose grackle in the airport very aggressively claiming the table behind me as his table.
December 8, 2024 at 8:33 PM