Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Happy "birthday" boys!


Left: DJ
Right: Harley

Would you believe that Harley and my sister's boyfriend share the same birthday today? Our uncle, dad's brother, was also born on this date.
So naturally the sign for today is "birthday"! :)
Note: In Seattle a shorter variation is used to sign birthday. Using the middle finger on the dominant hand, touch the middle finger to the chin and then bring it down and touch the middle of your chest.
Signs you see can vary depending on what region of the country you are in just like people in the south, east coast, and upper midwest/Canada have different accents. So if a browser or program you are using shows a different way to sign a word than how you see local people sign the same thing, it does not mean either person is wrong. Sometimes there can be 3 different ways to sign the same word.
Among the Deaf community in the Seattle area, I have seen them sign breakfast, lunch, dinner, and thursday different than the ASL browser developed by Michigan State University teaches and also in some beginning level sign language books.
Generally, Deaf people will understand the meaning of the variation but new signers or late deafened adults who are not fluently active may not.

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