Family Relationships
Next, you'll learn how to be more specific with gender signs. In general, you will learn to sign gender first followed by a second sign that is appropriate to the meaning or the clarification. Once again, a series of two or more signs is called a compound sign. Let's begin with the sign for “family,” which demonstrates unity.
FAMILY: Hold the “F” hands close to your body, thumb tips touching, move both hands out in a circular movement until both sides of your pinky fingers touch.
Now that you know how to sign “family,” using the same form you can also sign “team” using the letter “T,” “class” using the letter “C,” and “group” using the letter “G.”
CHILD: The sign for “child” can indicate various ages. Just extend your arm, and raise it to the age-appropriate height.
If you want to sign “children,” all you need to do is pat the heads of several imaginary “children” all around you.
Signing “baby” or “infant” is easy. It is a natural gesture. You need only to imitate holding and rocking a baby in your arms.
The signs for Father and Mother were introduced in Chapter 5. Now, here are common variations to these two signs:
Variation on father: To sign “father,” place the thumb of your “open five” hand on your forehead and wiggle your fingers.
Variation on mother: Place the thumb of your “open five” hand on your jawline and wiggle your fingers.
To sign “parents,” first sign “mother” and then immediately sign “father.” These two signs create the compound sign for “parents.” A variation is to tap the “P” hand above and below your cheekbone. Using the “P” hand to sign “parents” is an example of an initialized sign. In fact, if you use the “A” hand in place of the “P” hand, you are now signing the word for “adults.”
Signing “grandfather” and “grandmother” is easy. You will only need to add a forward movement.
To sign grandfather: First sign “father,” then move forward with a large arched movement off your forehead. This movement indicates generations. Variation: First sign “father,” then move forward with two small arcs off your forehead.
To sign grandmother: First sign “mother,” then move forward with a large arched movement off your forehead. Variation: First sign “mother,” then move forward with two small arcs off your forehead.
MARRIAGE: To sign “marriage,” tightly seal both hands together, representing a bond.
Now that you have learned how to sign “marriage,” you are able to form the compound sign for “husband” and “wife.” To form these signs, you will need to sign the gender first, then the sign for “marriage.” In other words, sign “female” and “marriage” for “wife.” Sign “male” and “marriage” for “husband.”
The signs for “brother” and “sister” are also compound signs. This image demonstrates the faster and more popular variation.
BROTHER: Tap the slightly extended thumb tip of the right “G” hand on your forehead, bring your right hand down, and place it on the left “G” hand in front of your body.
SISTER: Tap the slightly extended thumb tip of the right “G” hand on your jawline, bring your right hand down, and place it on the left “G” hand in front of your body.
By now, you should have mastered the location of the female and male signs. Having mastered genders, you can easily sign the remaining family members. These signs are initialized in their appropriate gender locations:
Uncle: Hold the “U” hand near your temple and shake slightly back and forth from your wrist.
Nephew: Extend the fingers of the “N” hand toward your temple and shake slightly back and forth from your wrist.
Niece: Extend the fingers of the “N” hand toward your jaw line and shake slightly back and forth from your wrist.
Aunt: Hold the “A” hand near your jaw line and shake slightly back and forth from your wrist.
