To be clear... I make NO claims whatsoever that this is how the handshapes came to be. This is simply my perception of how they MIGHT have been developed way back when, and can be helpful to people learning the ASL manual alphabet.

a: right hand, facing you, turned 90 counter clockwise; thumb is the "tail" at the top, body wraps around the fingers

b: right hand, facing you; stem is right/little finger(s), body is palm and curved thumb

C: right hand facing reader; fingers and thumb form C for reader's point of view

d: right hand facing left; finger is stem, fingers form body

e: right hand, facing you; trace from end of thumb across where fingers touch thumb, around fingers to under thumb

F: left hand, facing reader, turned 90+ deg clockwise; middle finger is the stem, ring and little finger are the horiz bars

g: right hand, facing left; curled middle finger is body, thumb forms tail

H: right hand,palm facing reader; fingers are the stems, mid-finger knuckle bumps form cross bar

I: little finger

J: little finger traces shape

K: left hand, facing right; index finger forms main stem, middle finger forms upper angled stem, remaining fingers form lower angled stem (some people)

L: right hand, facing reader; index finger stem, thumb horiz bar

m: facing you; three fingers form the stems

n: facing you; two fingers form the stems

o: right hand facing left; thumb and fingers form the shape

p: right hand turned left; thumb forms body, index finger forms stem

q: right hand turned left; index finger forms body, thumb forms stem

r: right hand, facing left, rotate 180 deg counter clockwise; crossed fingers form stem, up around to thumb form the hook

S: right hand, facing you: trace from top of thumb to tip to under to around fingers

t: right hand, facing left; thumb is stem, index finger is horiz bar

U: fingers form stems

V: fingers form stems

W: fingers form stems

Y: thumb and little finger form angled stems, hand is vertical stem

Z: traced



Lee

--- On Sun, 4/4/10, Nuno-Miguel Raposo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Nuno-Miguel Raposo <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Sign language sans fingerspelling
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, April 4, 2010, 2:03 AM

On 04/03/2010 08:44 AM, Lee wrote:
> If you can only see half, you are not trying hard enough. ;)
> 
> Form each handshape with your right hand, though a couple are better seen when formed with the left. Many are better seen when looked at from a different point of view than standard forward and vertical. Try viewing with different casing and printing styles in mind as well. Tracing sometimes helps make the image of the letter "pop out."
> 
> I can't really comment on what each handshape represents in other SLs, because I've only tried it with ASL. But, I would assume letters represented with one hand pointing to locations on the other aren't going to work so well.
> 
> Lee
>    
Ok, just so I can get some hints, here are the letters that I don't find clearly iconic.

A, B, E, F, G, H, P, Q, R, S, X (Total 11, so 2 short of half ;-)

Also I don't see how using your left hand vs. right should make any difference. I'm not being so strict as to consider "L" with my right hand not iconic because it is reversed :-)

My comparison with BSL, I found it more iconic.

A, E, G, H, I, O, R, S, U (Total 9)

LGP (Portuguese sign Language)

B, D, F, G, H, Q, S (7)

I might be being too strict, but I'm trying approaching it with from the "Would I be able to guess this letter in 2 tries" perspective. Not the "Now that I know what letter it represents, I can see where it might have come from". I also recognize that since I do read and produce fingerspelling every day I may have just become oblivious of their iconic representations, so I could just be missing something blatantly obvious :-)

Nuno