When I first thought of naming my dictionary, I tried for a more poetic title than ASL Dictionary. Breaking the Sound Barrier was my first idea. A reference to how the visual language of ASL is free from the shackles of verbal communication and noise. My teacher was not impressed with that name which is good as that title belonged to another book. 2019 Breaking the Sound Barrier novel by Steve Smith and Gianfranco Conti, a book about language studies through trained listening.
I needed to step back to think of a better name. These cartoons began as doodles in my textbook. When I moved up to full colour illustrations, I was still drawing them for myself to help me with my ASL studies. These pictures were my own personal collection of ASL hand signs stored in a book. With my dictionary now a resource for other students learning, I named the book My ASL Dictionary in reference to its beginnings. A simple name fortunately not used by other titles in print or online.
When the Facebook page for my dictionary needed new cover art, I made a joke about a common question I heard about its title. After seeing the text in other ASL cartoons, I upgraded my character’s comments to be more educational by separating and enlarging the words shown in hand signs.
