Month: September 2022

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REMEMBER US

Every September 30 in Canada is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. For Every Child Matters, Orange Shirt Day Commemorates the history and legacy of residential schools, honouring its survivors and the over six thousand souls who never made it home.
From the 1800s to the closing of the 20th century, these federally-run institutions took children of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples from their families to have them forcefully indoctrinated into Euro-Canadian society, their culture and heritage erased.

To respect the day, today’s ASL Word of the Day is Aboriginal.
The ASL visual mimics the feather headdress, so My ASL Dictionary had a First Nations Chief illustrating the hand sign.
F hand touches the cheek, then the side of the temple, a visual of the headdress.

In my dictionary, he stands beside a short biography on Indigenous Sign Language, a Hand Talk that existed long before ASL.

#ASL #signlanguage #aboriginal #firstnations #native #September30 #nationaldayoftruthandreconciliation #everychildmatters #dictionary #cartoon #myasldictionary

For book owners, a correction to the Dictionary’s hand sign. As the animation illustrates, the hand sign movement is once, not twice.

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ALARM

The signal of a loud bell or flashing light alerting a danger, an incoming phone call, or a reminder to wake up. For this hand sign, I drew a firefighter as the alarm for fire usually flashes the brightest and rings the loudest. For an update to the dictionary, the animation uses the alarm light visual and includes the Canadian variant ASL hand sign for ALARM.
#ASL #signlanguage #alarm #ringingphone #cartoon #myasldictionary

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EMERGENCY

After the Batman hand sign for Problem, the Animated ASL Word of the Day will continue with hand signs helpful to know in an Emergency.
As a fan of Doctor Who, my dictionary includes cartoons of many of the characters from that science-fiction program. For Emergency, I used a cartoon of Peter Cushing, who played the alien time traveller in two films. Instead of the actor’s beautiful blue eyes, this Doctor has Heterochromia as the only reference picture I could find of Mr. Cushing from those films was colour damaged. A happy accident as it makes his cartoon more interesting.#ASL #signlanguage #emergency #petercushing #cartoon #dictionary

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PROBLEMATIC

Solving one problem often leads to another. In American Sign Language, there are single ASL hand signs for multiple words and phrases in English. To keep my dictionary compact, I listed any extra words beside the hand sign instead of making several copies of the image for each word. This design choice created another difficulty by placing certain words out of alphabetical order. I corrected this trouble by installing a search option into the book, allowing the device to find any word’s location.
A cartoon of the Caped Crusader, the solver of many problems, illustrates this hand sign. The ASL hand sign for TOUGH has the Bent V hand sign strike down once. Surrounded in darkness for this animation, I also have the signal behind him using the silhouette of the ASL hand sign for Bat.
#ASL #sign language #problem #difficult #trouble #batman #grammar #cartoon #dictionary #myASLdictionary

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SMART MOUTH

With my computer back online, I’m returning to the Mouth Morpheme list with four separate markers, MM, ooo, AHH, and IS, on the ASL hand sign for Smart.
By adding Mouth Morphemes to this animated cartoon of my ASL teacher Charlie, the video shows five separate ASL words for intelligence. I’ve listed each marker on the cartoon’s left to make the lip movement clearer.
Studying this visual grammar also helped me understand the complications of ASL communication with the COVID-19 mask mandates. While a mask can muffle the spoken word, it can hide essential details in American Sign Language.
#ASL #signlanguage #mouthmorphemes #grammar #smart #bright #sharp #intellegent #gifted #cartoon #dictionary

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3-2 -1 GO!

Sadly, the college has cancelled my next ASL course due to insufficient enrollment (which I don’t understand as I keep signing up). While I wait for the next available course, I’ll keep practicing my past lessons to stay ready to begin the new ones.
For activities and sports, my dictionary has athletes, so for the ASL hand sign for Begin, I chose a race car driver, the athlete who sits and waits to start as soon as the racing flag drops. I also went with a driver as the movement of the index finger also mimics turning a key to start a car.
#ASL #signlanguage #start #begin #racecardriver #race #cartoon #dictionary

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I REMEMBER YOU

After resetting my computer to remove a possible virus, I accidentally erased many of the programs I use for my dictionary and its website. In dedication to my computer’s lost memory, a post of My ASL Dictionary’s hand sign for Remember.

With Pigtails, a Blue Calico Dress, and a yellow string on her thumb, a cartoon of Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz illustrates the ASL hand sign for REMEMBER.
The Thumb of the 10 hand touches the forehead, then arcs down to touch the thumb of the opposite hand, a visual reference to the old tradition of tying a string around your finger to tack down a memory.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #remember #string #dorothygale #cartoon #myasldictionary

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WOW!

To recover from yesterday’s weeping jester, a smiling clown. In May I posted this animated gentleman for the ASL hand sign for Amazing. To show the differences made with the ASL Mouth Morpheme AAH I closed his lips into a grin. After the Wow exclamation, the gleeful clown opens his jaw as he does in my dictionary to express how joyfully impressed he is.
#ASL #signlanguage #mouthmorphemes #grammar #amazing #wow #cartoon #dictionary

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SOBBING

In addition to showing distance, the AAH Mouth Morpheme can describe emotions of both shock and awe. For this variation of the ASL hand sign Cry, the clown begins with the clenched letter S then drags his wiggling fingertips down like tears rolling down his cheeks. This version, also found in my dictionary, uses the AAH marker to illustrate an extra intensity to the pain he’s showing.
#ASL #signlanguage #cry #weep #sad #grammar #mouthmorpheme #cartoon #dictionary

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HOW FAR?

AAH is the Mouth Morpheme for describing the distance of Far. I used a cartoon of a waiter giving directions for the ASL hand sign for That Over There. In the dictionary, a side hint mentions that the head bends in the opposite direction the finger is pointing to show a great distance. Adding the Mouth Morpheme AAH to his lips lets you know he’s pointing at something even further away. The first sign could refer to where to hang your coat, while the second refer to where you could find the washroom, located far in the back. As well as distance, the AAH marker also describes the emotions of shock and awe, which I have on a Clown’s face for my dictionary’s ASL hand sign for Amazing.
#ASL #signlanguage #mouthmorphemes #grammar #thatoverthere #distance #waiter #cartoon #dictionary

Cartoon of waiter giving directions with the ASL hand sign for That Over There., using the Mouth Morpheme AAH.