INDICATOR ON THE ALPHABETIC CHARACTER

As we have said before, the basic handshape position changes when it is followed by a alphabetic character with an orientation indicator.

Describing some manual orientations that are carried out in sign language is easy to understand, it is enough to observe that on the vowels finger and some alphabetic characters they have orientation indicators. To do this, you must learn these indicators that, as you can see, are easy to remember.

Remember that the palm of the hand, in BASIC HANDSHAPE POSITION 1, always points to the front. For this reason, whenever it appears alone (it is not followed by a alphabetic character with an orientation indicator above) it will adopt this same position in space.

For writing in sign language, it is important to distinguish between the: indicator on the handshape and the indicator on the alphabetic character.

1- The indicator on the handshape: if it does not have it or if it has it, it indicates one of the 5 basic positions of the hand.

2- The indicator on the alphabetic character that is in the palm of the hand: indicates the direction where the palm of the hand points in space or place.

Note that, this indicator on the alphabetic character indicates the direction where the PALM of the Handshape will point in space or place. pointing down, pointing left and pointing right respectively. Example:

Easy Grammar

As you will surely observe, the Handshape will almost always be accompanied by a vowels finger or other manual alphabetic character indicating the point of the Handshape that will make contact with the next alphabetic character.

This joint will be called from now on: HSS (Hss) - hand shape set. The equivalent of a syllable.

Notice in these examples how the Handshape and vowels finger form an “HSS” (in brown color) and then make contact with the place.

When writing or reading in sign language, and the sign is being made with one hand, it will be written from left to right.

The first contact will be after the vowels finger, the movement will be made on the first-place alphabetic character and then the second and in that order.

Generally, the position of the hand and its movement can be determined naturally by the place of contact.

Examples with BASIC HANDSHAPE POSITION 1

Vowels Finger and Umlauts

Remember, The vowels finger: are the five fingers of the hand in this order.

Vowels Finger

a i e o u

UMLAUT

In sign language it is very common that when making a sign it hits twice on the same place. To indicate this grammatical feature in writing, a colon (umlaut) is added on the vowel finger or manual alphabetic character: ä ï ë ö ü

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