"finalized" signs

[Tane Akamatsu]

What about PHOENIX ( the city in Arizona)?  I can't remember offhand, but I
seem to think it is made with an X handshape.

Then there's TEXAS,  Is that a middleized sign?

Tane Akamatsu


Michael Hamm wrote:

> Initialized signs are common in ASL, more so in signed American English.
> Has there been any study of words whose handshapes are taken from letters
> other than the first in their respective English (or, for other SLs, other
> spoken languages') glosses?
>
> I first thought of this regarding ASL's "silly", thinking it might just
> possibly be a euphamistic and "finalized" (to coin a phrase) "false". But
> that's unlikely. However, I have seen two signs for Bronx: Both are made
> in the "onion" location, but whereas one starts with a "b" and goes to a
> twisted-horizontal "x", the other starts with an "x" and goes to a
> twisted-horizontal "x", which would be, I suppose, an example of a
> "finalized" sign.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Michael Hamm
> BA, Math, Sept. '00
> msh210 at nyu.edu
> http://www.crosswinds.net/~msh210/