Online ASL References

I figured it would be a good idea to keep a running list of good online dictionaries and other resources to search for words/phrases/videos with. I will update this as often as good new sources arise and update the published date to be most recent! Enjoy satisfying your curiosity!

Online Dictionaries:

• ASL Pro
• Signing Savvy
• ASLU  (also has lessons available)
• Handspeak (also has word-of-the-day and phrase-of-the-week and other cultural tidbits)

YouTube-rs teaching lessons:

• eHow Sign Language Series: Talking About Yourself
• Free ASL  Channel
• SignLanguage101 Channel

Real-Printed Dictionaries:

• “American Sign Language Dictionary”, Third Edition. By Martin L.A. Sternberg.

September 29th Meeting

Level 1:

Grammar:

• To turn an activity into the type of person that performs it, add the “p” in a down motion after the action sign.
• Ex: Art –> Artist.
• Generally in ASL, male people signs (like “boy” and “man”) occur above the nose; female signs are usually below the nose. This video shows in greater detail (and has links to more fun things!).

People Signs:

• people
• man
• woman
• girl
• boy
• mom
• dad
• grandma
• grandpa
• sister
• brother
• cousin (girl and boy and neutral)
• aunt
• uncle
• niece
• nephew
• daughter
• son
• baby
• wife
• husband
• friend
• family
• These are other YouTube-ers that have varying vocab:
• One — bland, but concise.
• Two — step-by-step.

Colors:

• blue
• green
• purple
• yellow
• orange
• red
• pink
• black
• white
• tan
• brown
• gray
• silver
• gold

Level 3:
For a preemptive strike, we started interpreting Christmas carols this week. Look in the coming weeks for our attempts at conveying Christmas cheer with ASL!

September 22nd Meeting

Levels 1 and 2 were combined this week; level 3 continued separately.

Levels 1 & 2:

Telling Time: This is done in ASL by bringing the proper number sign up from the wrist and then adding “morning”, “afternoon”, “night” as necessary.

Introduction to Sentence Structure: Speaking an ASL sentence is much like drawing a picture. You start with: time –> subject –> object –> verb –> question –> negation. 

Vocabulary Review:

• Basic answers to questions
• fine
• good
• bad
• ok
• so-so
• sick
• gross
• happy
• sad
• yes
• no
• not
• never
• none/nothing
• Time signs
• time
• now/today
• tomorrow
• yesterday
• everyday/daily
• Monday-Sunday
• week
• weekend
• last week
• next week
• month
• monthly
• year
• every year
• future
• past
• close/near,
• morning
• noon
• afternoon
• night
• midnight
• all day
• all night
• day
• hour
• minute
• spring
• summer
• fall
• winter
• Polite signs
• Thank you
• You’re welcome
• please
• sorry

Level 3:

We spoke briefly about the absence of sarcasm in ASL, and noted that ASL has its own idiomatic expressions that are different from those of spoken English. For example, one would not literally translate “It’s raining cats and dogs” in ASL, instead they would just make exaggerated signs and faces for “rain”.

We also learned some about directionality and the differences/similarities between the signs for:

• me—my—-myself
• you–your–yourself
• we—ours—us
• the two of us
• you and I “sharing”, having something in common; or two objects that have something in common or the same.
• I tell you
• You tell me

The main focus during the meeting today was creating sentences with the right word order as well as some vocabulary to make said sentences. To denote the differences between the two, spoken English will be on the left, and the ASL equivalent will be to the right of the “–>”.

• Why weren’t you here last week? –> Last week you here not why? or Last week you gone why?
• I can’t find the book. –> Book find can’t.
• If you wanted to add possession, such as “my book”, then the sentence becomes –> Book mine find can’t.
• Where is the trash can? –> Trash (put) where?
• What is the homework? –> Homework what?
• I have to go to class. –> Class go to must.
• I ate breakfast this morning. –> Today morning food I ate.
• I like your necklace. –> Necklace yours I like.
• I’m going shopping tonight. –> Today night shopping I go.
• I’m going shopping next week. –> Next week shopping will happen.
• I’m happy that the rain stopped. –> Rain stop me happy.
• I don’t understand. –> I understand not.

Vocab:

• Verbs:
• leave
• hurry
• shopping
• need/must
• know
• understand 
• fail
• pass/succeed
• Adjectives:
• tired
• smart
• stupid
• dumb
• idiot(ic)
• Nouns
• church
• test
• Clothes
• jacket
• pants
• skirt
• dress
• shirt
• glasses
• Other:
• everything/all
• very
• that
• because (“why” with raised eyebrows)
• Cascades:
• grow
• gone
• paper
• nice
• school
• cheese
• movie
• meet
• kiss
• different
• divorce
• success
• famous

September 15th Meeting

We discussed, again, the importance of topicalization [non-hand elements of signs]. For example, the difference between “who”, “salad” and “here” relies on differences in topicalization.

We separated into 3 group levels this meeting.

Level one:

• ABC-s
• 123-s
• “W-” questions
• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• How
• How are you?
• How many (what number)
• Which
• What’s up?
• What are you doing, what’s going on, what are you going to do?

Level Two: 

• Responses to “How are you?”
• Fine
• Good
• Bad
• OK
• So-so
• Gross
• Sick
• Happy
• Sad
• Responses to “Yes/No” questions
• Yes
• No
• Not
• None
• Never
• Time signs
• Time
• Today
• Yesterday
• Tomorrow
• Daily
• Week
• Weekly
• Weekend
• Month
• Monthly
• Year
• Yearly
• Monday-Sunday

Level 3: 

• Basic ASL Sentence Structure: Time –> Subject –> Verb –> Negation (if any) –> Question (if any).
• Furniture words review
• Verbs
• remember
• forget/forgot
• learn
• study
• teach
• think
• imagine
• help [directional]
• give
• love
• hate
• like
• don’t like
• want
• go out
• run
• walk
• play
• cook
• clean
• work
• finish/done
• arrive
• try
• focus
• hear(ing)
• drive
• Nouns
• noise
• earthquake
• traffic
• garage
• car crash
• car
• truck
• Adjectives
• hot
• Cascades (one sign that leads to another related sign)
• live
• address
• “You live where?”
• memories
• suppress
• show
• Pizza
• Pepsi
• dry
• ugly
• summer
• black
• write
• paint

September 8th Meeting

We reviewed the:

• Alphabet
• Fingerspelling &
• Numbers 1-20

We learned:

• Facial expressions (aka: topicalization or Non-Manual Markers [NMMs]) are important in ASL:
• “Grammatical markers in facial expression includes eye-shifting and eye-glancing, head-tilting and head-shifting, cheek-puffing, lip movement, nose-furrowing, and eyebrow-shifting. Facial signifiers can convey a wide variety of meanings” (handspeak.com).
• These facial expressions are usually used in conjunction with specific signs.
• Questions where a response is expected to be “Yes/No” are asked with upraised eyebrows. Take a look.
• Questions with non-“Yes/No” answers (such as the “W” questions) are asked with eyebrows shifted down, as if the questioner is confused or concerned. Take a look; and scroll down for another look.
• “W-” Questions:
• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• How
• How are you?
• Which
• What’s up?
• What are you doing, what’s going on, what are you going to do?

NEW (Academic) YEAR!

Hello, and welcome to ONU’s ASL Club of 2011-2012! We’re excited that you’re here!
Some general information from last week that you may want to reference from time to time:

• Meetings are from 4:30-5:30ish on Thursdays, just in case you forgot.
• The dictionary at aslpro.com is a good reference for those times when Jenny isn’t there to answer your questions.
• The officers are:
• Facilitator Jenny
• Facilitator Maddie
• Treasurer Ashley
• Secretary Danielle
• Blogger Katie.
• This blog is where you’ll find recaps of all the lessons taught during the club year. Once we learn more words, I will be listing them here so you can review throughout the week. Grammar lessons will also be re-capped (; hopefully they will make sense as I am looking to teach languages the rest of my life!).

Last week was the first meeting and we learned/reviewed:

• The Alphabet
• Numbers 1-10(+).
• Fingerspelling
• The concept of Sign Names. This is a unique sign, given to you by a member of the Deaf Community, to use in place of always fingerspelling out your name in conversation. They are commonly used amongst groups of friends. These signs usually consist of, but are not limited to, the first letter of your name and an attribute or hobby of yours combined into a sign, although this is a matter of dispute in the Deaf/Hearing communities as well.

2011-5-5 : The National Anthem

ASL song interpretation rarely follows the words of the song exactly, nor does it necessarily follow the proper grammar rules of either spoken English or ASL. This is an interpretation of the National Anthem.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light

Looking  seeing dawn

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?

Big big proud all of us celebrate light

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

Four big stripes star sparkle through terrible fight/war

O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

Over trenches watch “wavy classifier”

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Red rocket “hand flash explosions”

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Show through all night flag steady “point to American flag nearby”

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

Question marks stripes “wavy classifier”

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Land free America people brave.

Back-Logging [Vocabulary]

Hello soon to be loyal blog-reader! Although ONU’s ASL club hasn’t had a blog until recently, we have been busy learning vocabulary, culture and a bit of signer’s perspective for almost two academic years! The following is a long list of what we’ve come to learn since the club began in 2009/2010. More fine-tuning and formatting will come in the following weeks– so be on the lookout!

Week 1

• Alphabet
• Numbers 1-10

Week 2

• Numbers 1-21
• “Wh- Questions”
• why
• who
• what
• where
• when
• why
• which
• how
• how are you
• what’s up
• what are you doing/what are you going to do/what’s going on

Week 3

• Colors
• blue
• yellow
• green
• purple
• red
• pink
• orange
• white
• black
• gray
• brown
• tan
• silver
• gold
• Relation names:
• girl
• boy
• mom
• dad
• grandma
• grandpa
• sister
• brother
• cousin (girl and boy and neutral)
• aunt
• uncle
• niece
• nephew
• daughter
• son
• baby
• wife
• husband
• friend
• family

Week 4

• Responses to “How are you?”:
• Fine
• good
• bad
• ok
• so-so
• sick
• gross
• happy
• sad
• angry
• Pleasantries:
• Thank you
• You’re welcome
• please
• sorry
• yes
• no
• not
• never
• none/nothing
• Time
• Now/today
• tomorrow
• yesterday
• everyday/daily
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday
• Friday
• Saturday
• Sunday
• week
• weekend
• last week
• next week
• month
• monthly
• year
• every year
• future
• past
• close/near
• timeline

Week 5

• More Time Signs:
• morning
• noon
• afternoon
• night
• midnight
• all day
• all night
• day
• hour
• minute/second
• Halloween Signs:
• Halloween
• mask
• ghost
• monster
• pumpkin
• jack-o-lantern
• candles
• leaf/leaves
• vampire
• witch
• costume
• trick-or-treat
• harvest
• broom
• rake
• haunt
• spider
• bat
• scarecrow
• scare
• fool
• caramel
• candy

Week 6

• Seasons:
• Spring
• Summer
• Fall
• Winter
• Dining
• Food/eat
• breakfast
• lunch
• dinner
• hungry
• thirsty
• cook
• water
• milk
• coffee
• tea
• pop
• coke
• pepsi
• drink
• alcoholic drink
• hamburger
• hotdog
• beef/meat
• chicken
• turkey
• bread
• strawberry
• cherry
• apple
• banana
• pineapple
• pumpkin
• cheese
• salad
• corn
• onion
• potato
• soup
• toast
• eggs
• bacon
• pancake
• syrup
• chocolate
• peanut butter
• nut
• butter
• jelly
• jello
• pie
• cookie
• candy
• pizza
• french-fries
• sandwich

Week 7

•  Nationalities:
• English/England
• French/France
• German/Germany
• Spanish/Spain
• Irish/Ireland
• Scottish/Scotland
• Swiss/Switzerland
• Italian/Italy
• Mexico
• Russia
• Africa
• Canada
• Places in the home:
• Room
• restroom/bathroom
• kitchen
• bedroom
• living room
• garage
• up/down- stairs
• dining room
• hallway
• house
• home
• attic
• work
• office
• Ways to spend time:
• Sleep
• wake up
• homework
• school
• store
• church
• Driving
• Car
• road
• accident
• traffic

Week 8

• Review of Colors and People

Week 9

• December Celebrations:
• Christmas
• Merry Christmas
• Happy New Year
• Hanukkah

Week 10

• Good to know:
• want
• need
• should
• must
• like
• don’t like
• love
• hate
• think
• have
• leave
• go/go-out
• join
• enter
• walk
• run
• jump
• dance
• stand
• sit
• building
• stressed

Week 11

• Telling time
• Numbers up to 100,
• Animals:
• cat
• dog
• fish
• squirrel
• bird
• snake
• bear
• duck
• cow
• pig
• chicken
• horse
• mouse
• bug
• spider
• butterfly

Week 12

• Descriptions:
• many
• much
• more
• very
• big
• small
• skinny
• moderate
• fat
• pregnant
• hair
• long
• short
• curly
• straight
• bald
• face
• beautiful
• ugly
• beard
• stubble
• moustache
• tall
• short
• blonde
• Clothing
• clothes
• earrings
• shirt
• skirt/dress
•  pants
• shoes
• boots
• socks

Week 13

• Relation
• You
• your
• class
• step-relatives (brother, sister, mom, dad)
• brother
• sister
• mom
• dad
• half-relatives (same)
• neighbor
• Environment
• Tree
• flower
• grass
• beach
• sand
• fence
• Good to know:
• Try
• Right
• true/really
• camera
• keys
• medicine

Week 14

• At Home:
• Blinds
• couch
• bed
• window
• chair (regular)
• chair (recliner)
• table
• tv
• door
• front door
• toilet
• fireplace
• stove
• oven
• counter
• shower
• bathtub
• curtains
• lamp
• sink
• fridge
• freezer
• ceiling fan
• microwave
• mirror
• closet
• dresser
• desk
• fence
• stairs
• swimming pool
• roof
• yard
• attic
• porch
• air conditioning
•  furniture
• coffee table
• rocking chair
• piano
• rug
• shelf
• bookshelf
• dishwasher
• phone
• comforter
• pillow
• blanket
• towel
• clock
• tissue
• art
• picture
• picture frame
• library
• kitchen
• garage
• bedroom
• bathroom
• washroom
• dining room
• family room
• Living room
• Building materials:
• wood
• brick
• stone
• stucco
• glass