WEBSITE: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "website / WWW"

Often when referring to "the web" or a "website" people will just sign WW (as a short form of WWW). For example:
MY FAVORITE WW? LP!
(My favorite website is Lifeprint!).
Note: In the above version we typically just sign two W's (not three).

 

0:00 / 0:00

 

But people also sign WWW (for instance, if you were telling someone the address to your website (where you can learn ASL, heh) you would include the 3rd W.)

 

0:00 / 0:00

 

Sample sentence: If you want to know more information, check their website.

0:00 / 0:00

 


Question: A YouTube commenter asks: "How does one distinguish the website sign (WW) from the number 66? The obvious answer is, of course, context, but I didn't know if there was another distinguishing nuance like the tapping difference between 6 and W. Thank you!"

Response: The signs for "website" and "66" do overlap. (We could add "World War," "Weight Watchers," "Willy Wonka" and probably a half dozen other concepts to that list.)

In the totally unrealistic and improbable event that I needed to sign: "I own 66 websites" -- I'd switch over to doing a very clear tap-(small)-slide-tap version of 66 and keep the sloppy WW version of "website."

If clarity were essential you could do the tap-(small)-slide-tap version of 66 and then fingerspell "websites."

If we are being honest here -- many Deaf (not all, but a significant number of us) subconsciously (or consciously) add mouthing to ambiguous signs.

While some online bloggers / vloggers might seek social clout by indiscriminately bashing mouthing -- the reality of the common use of occasional, judicious, subtle mouthing for disambiguation is easily verifiable by observing a wide sample of Deaf vloggers and/or Deaf newscasters.
Also, bravo and good job to you for thinking of using the tap version of "66." Actually just yesterday my wife, Bee, and I -- while walking the dog -- were discussing how 66 through 99 have tap versions whereas 22, 33, 44, and 55 do not.

Or maybe (more likely) I was discussing it and she was humoring me.
 


Notes: 

See: PAGE

NETWORK






 
Notes: