Hand Symbol Construction ... Rootshapes and Action Fingers

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
September 29, 2013

On Sep 29, 2013, at 7:35 AM, Stefan Woehrmann <stefanwoehrmann at GEBAERDENSCHRIFT.DE> wrote:
> thanks for your comment... Yes you are right ... I understand... the Digitus minimus (manus),  is still in contact with the palm. ...But what if not??? Uuups-
>  Following the idea of “hand shape constraction we would start with the flat hand – “house” ... right Valerie ..since no finger would touch the palm.

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Hello Stefan and Everyone -
Thank you for this question, Stefan - and yes, that could be correct depending on how close the tip of the bent finger is to the palm of the hand...

Following the definitions of the 2010 Rootshapes, as you can see by the attached, Rootshape 01, 04 and 13 could all be used depending on how close the tip of the bent finger is, to the palm of the hand. If the bent finger is touching the palm the hand, then the Rootshape used for that hand symbol is the Square or Tight Fist symbol, Rootshape 01. If the bent finger has its tip close to the palm of the hand, but is actually not touching, so the finger is in more of a curve - a relaxed finger that maybe is trying to be a fist but cannot reach the palm of the hand and does not touch…that would be Rootshape 04 - using a Circle Rootshape. But if the bent finger is only bent from the Middle Joint and is really sticking up more and not near the palm of the hand, then that would be taken from the 13th Rootshape - the Flat Hand… The 2010 Rootshape structure is in two of our textbooks - The SignWriting Hand Symbols Manual for the ISWA 2010  and the ASL Hand Symbols Manual. The 2004 Rootshapes were described in Chapter 4 of The IMWA 2004 Reference Manual …but they were updated in 2010.





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