Month: January 2025

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IS

ASL generally does not use auxiliary verbs in its syntax. When needed, verbs like IS, TO BE, AM, and ARE are often just fingerspelled.

When I saw the verb IS described as a TO BE verb, I created a cartoon of Hamlet for his famous “To Be” speech. Holding the skull of Yorick, the Prince of Denmark illustrates the fingerspelling and two ASL hand signs for IS.

The I hand on the chin thrusts forward.

An old ASL hand sign, often used for Signing Exact English, has the I hand on the chest arc down and forward.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #IS #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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YEAR OF THE SNAKE

GONG HEI FAT CHOY! For the Chinese New Year Spring Festival, this year on January 29, 2025, from my ASL Dictionary, the mysterious sixth animal in the Lunar cycle.

My Dictionary’s one-armed Snake Tamer changes his green uniform to a new dress for the holiday and illustrates the ASL hand sign for SNAKE.

The Bent V hand moves forward in side-to-side arcs, like a Cobra slithering on the ground.

#ASL #americanSignLanguage #signlanguage #snake #chinesenewyear2025 #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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UNITED MEXICAN STATES

Located in the Southern portion of North America, México is a beautiful land of extremes, with high mountains, deep canyons, sweeping deserts, and dense rain forests. Spanish is the official language and LSM, Lengua des Señas Mexicana, is the predominant language of the Deaf community.

My ASL Dictionary has a young Senora in two fancy Carnival dresses showing the ASL hand sign for MEXICO.
The V hand on the forehead swings forward twice, like showing the front of a sombrero.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #mexico #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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KINGDOM OF SPAIN

The largest country in Southwest Europe is the storied country of España, filled with stone castles, snow-capped mountains, vast monuments, and sophisticated cities.

My ASL Dictionary has a Spanish Matador wearing his traje de luces, illustrating the ASL hand signs for SPAIN, a silhouette of running bulls passing him when he’s finished.

The X hand on the shoulder arcs down to join the opposite X hand.
Similar to the Old ASL hand sign for Mexico.

OR
The X hand flips over the heart.

#ASL #signlanguage #americansignlanguage #spain #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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ASTHMA INHALER

Asthma is a chronic lung disease with symptoms of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and rapid breathing.
My ASL Dictionary has a cartoon of my friend Shannon Stuart’s son, Emerson Douglas, dressed in his 2019 Guelph Gryphon’s Hockey Jersey illustrating the ASL hand sign for ASTHMA.
5 hands move forward and backward from the chest twice, a visual of the chest breathing.
The hand sign for BREATHE can also be with the A hands.

An addition to the book is the hand sign for INHALER, the hand-held portable device that delivers medicine to the lungs.
The thumb of the L hand by lips bends at the index knuckle, like pressing down on the inhaler device.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #asthma #breath #inhaler #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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EPILEPTIC SEIZURE

The strongest visual of Epilepsy is the Seizure, a patient losing consciousness, falling to the ground, and shaking with jerking movements of the arms and legs.
As this medical condition involves the brain, My ASL Dictionary has a cartoon of a Brain Surgeon illustrating the ASL hand signs for SEIZURE, classifiers for a grand mal seizure.

The Bent V hand rolls on the opposite palm Twice.
OR
V hand snaps into bent V hand as it rolls on the opposite palm Twice.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #seizure #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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VISUAL SIGN

ASL, the visual language communicating with hand movements, exists because of the historical figures that helped it grow.
Charles-Michel de l’Épée, the 18th-century priest and educator known as the Father of the Deaf, created the world’s first manual sign alphabet.

Listed in My ASL Dictionary’s Deaf History with a short biography of his philanthropic works, a cartoon of Épée illustrates the ASL hand sign for SIGN (the French hand signs he created appearing before the English word).

The index fingers of both 1 hands rotate in alternating circles as they pedal backward.

#ASL #americansignlanguge #signlanguage #sign #epee #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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BLOND BLONDE

My ASL Dictionary includes cartoons of Mimes showing the hand signs for colours. Hair colour, however, uses different terms, especially when describing flaxen golden or fair and pale yellow.
An update to the Mime for Yellow, a cartoon of a pretty Pantomime, her hat removed, shows two ASL hand signs for BLONDE.

The thumb Y hand starts at the side of the temple to arc the hand backward as if stroking the hair.
OR
Palm in, the tip of the Y hand’s pinkie starts on the side temple to swing the hand outward palm out.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #hair #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

 

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ELECTRIC BATTERY

In novels and films, the crazy mad Scientist often plays with electricity as his experiments play with fire. My ASL Dictionary has a cartoon of a movie scientist with goggles and frazzled hair showing the ASL hand sign for BATTERY and ELECTRICITY.

The two X hands tap the knuckles twice, like tapping a battery to release its electric voltage.

#ASL #americansignlanguage #signlanguage #battery #electricity #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary

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PROTECTIVE MASK

Each ASL illustration in My ASL Dictionary has a date attached to my EJM signature, with some of the pictures influenced by the period they were created in.
In the summer of 2020, to curb the spread of COVID-19, Public Health Care’s recommendation to wear protective masks in public became mandatory. Instead of a cartoon of a nurse, doctor, or dentist, My ASL Dictionary has a cartoon of a young woman with Ginger hair and a green top showing the ASL hand sign for FACE MASK (a cartoon of a PPE mask appearing on her face after the hand sign).

The modified C hands pull across the face like the mask that covers the nose and mouth.

#ASL #signlanguage #americansignlanguage #facemask #mask #cartoon #dictionary #myasldictionary