Phonology of numerals

[Karlin, Ben]

I am curious if the numeral signs described are produced 'backwards' by
left-handed signers.  In the description you refer to dominant and
nondominant hands; are they or are they left and right?  I ask because of
the association of numerals to written text and formats.

Ben Karlin
St. Louis, MO
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: Christian Rathmann [mailto:rathmann at MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU]
>  Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 5:07 PM
>  To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
>  Subject: Re: Phonology of numerals
>
>
>  The nondominant hand remains unmarked, and it
>  continues to follow the movement of the dominant hand, so in
>  that sense, the sign obeys the Dominance Condition.
>
>  Many DGS signs involving the numerals 6 through 9 (e.g. 6-9,
>  16-19, 26-29, etc.) similarly use the two hands, with the
>  nondominant hand appearing in the 5 handshape, which is
>  unmarked and copies the movement of the dominant hand. The
>  crucial point here is that dominance cannot be switched in
>  these signs, i.e. the nondominant hand cannot appear in the
>  handshape for 6 while the dominant hand appears in the 5
>  handshape.