As a general procedure, HAPPY investigates the 12 handshapes
and 6 movements proposed by Dennis, Reichle, Williams and Vogelsberg (1982).
There were 29 hand shapes common for both, but the research group at the University of Tartu had 7 additional hand forms in their descriptions (Figure 1, hand forms 4, 7, 10, 13, 26, 31 and 33) and Sign Language Centre in Porkuni described 9 additional handshapes
(Figure 2, hand forms 2, 13, 14, 16, 20, 23, 28, 30 and 33).
In this first in a series Smith and Jacobowitz present forty-four of the most common ASL handshapes
in an engaging mix of text and full-color graphics including a DVD.
Frequency of Occurrence and Ease of Articulation of Sign Language Handshapes
Additionally, users can search for signs with similar handshapes
rather than only by the English translation.
BSL is a visual language with distinctive grammar using handshapes
, facial expressions, gestures and body language designed to convey meaning.
Second, there is an iconic mapping from the concrete domain to the linguistic domain (e.g., cylindrical objects map to cylindrical handshapes
* Cued speech is a system that uses handshapes
in different locations along with the natural mouth movements to represent speech sounds.
Cued speech is an adjunctive system which aids in speechreading by using handshapes
around the face to represent consonant sounds, and positions about the face to represent vowel sounds.
Note that the inflection for 'dual-', expressed by classifier handshapes
, is not affected by the slip but accommodated to the lexical semantics of the two signs, respectively (SITZ- has a bent V-handshape, STEH-a straight V-handshape).