Metathesis in signs

[Trude Schermer]

Dear Rachel,
The most common form for the sign DAG (DAY) in the west part of the
Netherlands is to contact the cheek twice with the index finger (movement is
towards to cheek), in the Northern part the cheek is touched once. In
compound signs the number of contactmovements is reduced to only one, in all
regions, like in NIEUWJAARSDAG (newyears day) or KONINGINNEDAG (QUEENSDAY).
Also in combination with an adjective like in the whole day, the contact
movement is reduced to once.
For your information: the Dutch sign for Ear-nose-throat doctor follows the
Dutch abbrevations which stand for Throat-Nose-Ear; the index finger points
to the throat, then upwards to the nose and ear.

trude schermer

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: For the discussion of linguistics and signed languages.
[mailto:SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA]Namens Rachel Channon
Verzonden: dinsdag 16 oktober 2001 19:26
Aan: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
Onderwerp: Re: Metathesis in signs


Mark Mandel (thank you) tells me that my posting has strange letters in it,
so I am resending it and hope I have solved the problem.

>>It seems the sign for DAY (DAG) in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)
is such a sign; an index makes (single) contact on the cheek and in an
alternate form it can move away from (contact on) the cheek.

Dear Victoria,
Could you describe this sign and its variant for me in more detail? What is
its etymology? I am surprised and very interested, because there is a group
of signs, call them group A, that move toward the body and have only one
contact point.  They seem to be very simple signs which could be described
by listing their hand and body contact points and handshape and assuming
that moving toward a contact place is the unmarked or default action.  Two
examples are ASL MY and MOTHER.  MY moves toward, and contacts the chest
with the palm of a flat unspread hand.  MOTHER repeatedly moves toward and
contacts the chin with the thumb of a flat spread hand. But if there are
some signs that can move toward or away from a single contact point, then
the descriptions of signs in group A might need to include some indication
of direction such as toward.
  Thanks Rachel

P.S. Interestingly, the ASL sign for DAY seems to be reversible also.  The
strong hand and forearm move to contact the weak forearm in an
elbow-centered arc that is one-fourth of a circle. The strong arm can either
start in contact with (laying on top of) the weak forearm, or end in contact
with it.

Rachel Channon
University of Maryland
rchannon at speakeasy.net