MONDAY:
For more information, see: MONDAY
TUESDAY:
For more information, see: TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY:
For more information, see: WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY:
THURSDAY (version):
For more information, see: THURSDAY
FRIDAY:
For more information, see: FRIDAY
SATURDAY:
For more information, see: SATURDAY
SUNDAY:
For more information, see: SUNDAY
Notes:
Jake from Reno, Nevada writes:
Hey Dr. Bill,
I was wondering about signing days of the week. I noticed most people sign the days with the letter turned towards themselves. As opposed to a few people who I have seen sign with the letter facing the person they are talking to. The latter makes more sense to me, as it is easier to see...but I don't think it's technically correct.
I was curious if you had any insight on this.
Thanks for your help.
- Jake Coombs, The Academy Martial Arts
-----------------------------------------------
Jake,
Both versions of the days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are correct but the "palm back/up" version is more casual and easier to do. The palm forward version shows up more in paper-based dictionaries and is thus what you would call a "citation" form. Native Deaf adults tend to do the "palm back" version unless they are striving to be "very" clear and/or are emphasizing.
Question: Can days of the week rotate either direction?
Answer: In general I rotate my days of the week "clockwise" (both the palm forward version and the "palm-up/back" version).
However now you've got me wondering if my way of signing the days of the week is predominant to the extent that circling the other way would look odd to other skilled signers and thus veer into the realm of being an error.
I just looked at a few of my colleagues' versions of "Monday" and they rotate it the way I do.
I'm going to say that you may see the days of the week rotate in either direction but that doing them clockwise (from the viewpoint of the signer) seems to be the norm.
If something is the norm in a language and you do something out of the norm -- it is abnormal (by definition). It would be interesting to expand the survey and see if out of 30 skilled signers how many of them did the days clockwise. If 25 or more do -- I'd then be convinced that it would be best for ASL students to do it clockwise. I might not delete points from their score on assignments but I would likely mention the preferred (or more common) movement.
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