ASL fingerspelling

[Tane Akamatsu]

Just so I'm clear on what you mean, I will make a few assumptions.  First of
all, I assume you mean "with their non-dominant hand beneath their dominant
hand" to account for left-handed signers.  I also assume you mean that the
non-dom hand is lax, just below the wrist of the dom hand, perhaps with only
the index finger actually making contact with the dom arm?  I am further
assuming you are not talking about mirror fingerspelling.

Having said that, I think it's a stylistic difference, not related to
ASL/Signed English or city by city (or I've been only in cities where both are
used, which is highly unlikely).  I think that the function of the
non-dominant hand is to "support" the dominant hand, not physically, but
elocutionarily (is that a word?) for emphasis,  to call visual attention to
the particular fingerspelled word, almost as if the non-dom hand is saying
"look here, this is important".

It is possible you might find it more often in English-based signing or
contact signing, just because of the nature of the lexical choices one might
make.

Tane Akamatsu

Michael Hamm wrote:

> Hi, all. I notice some people fingerspelling here in the States with their
> left hands beneath their right, and some without. Is this an ASL / Signed
> English difference? or a city-to-city difference? or what? Thanks.
>
> Michael Hamm
> BA, Math, Jan. '01
> msh210 at nyu.edu
> http://pages.nyu.edu/~msh210/