Throwing without Knowing?

[naraht]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

I am perfectly ok with my sorority's hand sign since it is so painfully simple and celebrates the letter that makes us unique among NPC sororities. But the ones who have ridiculously complicated ones? Yeah, they should stop trying so hard to be cool. Their symbols are interesting and unique and the fact that they can't be mimicked in hand gestures should be celebrated, not used to cause carpal tunnel.

But straying into the ASL question, I have wondered how sorority names are translated for ASL. My nephew goes to RIT, a school with a lot of deaf students. I asked him to find out but, you know, he doesn't care so never got me an answer. Does anyone know if the letters are spelled out, abbreviated, made a single gesture, or what?

There is a Greek Sign Language which has fingerspelling signs for the Greek Alphabet the same way that American Sign Language has for the English Alphabet. See http://myweb.ttu.edu/carsteph/GreekManualAlphabet.jpg , but I've *never* seen these signs used by Greek Letter Organizations.

My fraternity in signing our toast song uses the following sign. The Boy Scout sign is also our handsign, it starts out "on the square" (upper arm horizontal, lower arm up), then is folded over the heart and then extended palm up. We'd never try using it with a group without explaining it first, but in casual conversation in ASL, they'd probably just abbreviate it to APO.