SCC Sign Language Linguistics Project

Handshape refers to the configuration of the hands and is likely a distinctive parameter in all sign languages.

100% of documentation on 87 sign languages in the Sign Language Analyses (SLAY) database identify handshape as a distinctive parameter. (Tatman 2015)

Selected fingers

The selected fingers of a handshape are considered the active fingers of the hand that:

Can assume a specific configuration (e.g. extended, bent, hooked)
Can have internal movement (e.g. wiggling)
Are the fingers that contact other locations or hands

Marked and unmarked handshapes

Marked handshapes are handshapes that tend to have certain phonotactic constraints:

Marked handshapes usually do not undergo internal movement
Marked handshapes usually do not appear in classifiers
Marked handshapes are more restricted in how they contact a location
In Type 3 signs, marked handshapes are usually disallowed in the nondominant hand

What handshapes are considered marked in a language differs depending on the language. However, linguists do not agree on a single set of criteria for what should be considered a marked or unmarked handshape.

Handshape inventories and distribution (Rozelle 2003)

Sign languages each have different handshape inventories, though even unrelated languages may share many handshapes in common. Languages with larger handshape inventories have larger location inventories as well.

Handshape inventories of four unrelated sign languages in Rozelle 2003, showing 22 shared handshapes in the middle. Handshapes unique to the language have a dotted outline.

In a comparison between the four unrelated sign languages ASL, KSL, NZSL, and SVK, the handshape inventory sizes ranged from 34 to 49, with an average of 40 and a standard deviation of 7. Among these four languages, 22 handshapes were used in common.

	ASL	KSL	NZSL	SVK	VSVK	LIS
Inventory size	35	44	49	34	28	41

Inventory sizes across different sign languages in Rozelle 2003

Handshapes used only in certain signs

Some handshapes that are present in a language's inventory are only used in signs with a handshape change or in signs with borrowings from another language. Different sign languages have different sets of such handshapes.

For example, in KSL, the handshapes used only in handshape changing signs are hamfinger23,hamthumboutmod,hamfingerstraightmod hampinch12open,hamindexfinger,hamfingerbendmod,hammiddlefinger,hamfingerbendmod hamceeopen,hammiddlefinger hampinch12,hamfingerstraightmod,hamindexfinger,hammiddlefinger hamfinger2,hamthumboutmod,hamindexfinger,hamfingerhookmod hampinch12,hamfingerpad , which are used in signs like CHONG gun which involves a handshape change from hamfinger2,hamthumboutmod to hamfinger2,hamthumboutmod,hamindexfinger,hamfingerhookmod.

Languages like ASL and NZSL have handshapes that appear only in their associated fingerspelled alphabet and signs that borrow from it, such as the NZSL fingerspelled letter S hamfinger2,hamthumboutmod,hampinky,hamfingerbendmod appearing in SATURDAY and SOCIAL WORK, which both start with S in English.

KSL also has handshapes that occur only in borrowings, including those that borrow from the shape of the corresponding Chinese character. For example, SAN mountain has a handshape hamfinger2,hamthumbacrossmod,hammiddlefinger resembling 山, and BAT field overlaps hamfinger2345,hamthumbacrossmod,hampinky,hamfingerhookmod on each hand to resemble 田.

References

Tatman 2015: The cross-linguistic distribution of sign language parameters
Rozelle 2003: The Structure of Sign Language Lexicons: Inventory and Distribution of Handshape and Location