Page:The philology of the sign language.djvu/5

 forefingers outstretched side by side. "Sister" is made in the same way, simply substituting the sign for "female" instead of that for "male." "Children" in general are "men" and "women" in varying heights, indicated by the outstretched hand. A "gentleman" is a man who, in the days when conventional signs were originated, wore a ruffle down his shirt front. The "lady" was "frilly" then, as now.

Domestic animals are pictured by imitating their most prominent characteristics, such as the whiskers of the cat and its soft silky fur that invites petting; the narrow erect ears of the horse; the wide flapping ears of the mule; the bill of the chicken as it scratches the ground—to differentiate it from the bird that is flying; the horns of the cow, followed by the action of milking. "Dog," on the other hand, is suggested not by characteristics of the animal, but of ourselves—the motion which we instinctively make when calling our dog, such as snapping our fingers and patting our knees. Many of these signs may be compared to compound words, and are frequently abbreviated by giving only the first part; but this should not be encouraged as, like abbreviations in spoken or written language, it detracts from clearness and exactness.

Time, in all its divisions of day, night, week, month, season, year, may be very vividly portrayed in the sign-language, but it is "time" in the abstract sense that I am speaking of now, not "time" as measured off by the mechanical ticking of watch or clock. And right here let me make the distinction between these two signs for "time." If we wish to ask "What time is it?" we would indicate the ticking of the timepiece by tapping the forefinger of the right hand on the back of the closed or rounded left hand, followed by the sign for "how many," made by suddenly opening all the fingers from the two closed hands, palms up, as if to let you count them. But, "Did you have a good time?" is the abstract idea, and cannot be measured in seconds and minutes, and must therefore be indicated by the manual letter "t" traveling indefinitely about the face of a clock, suggested by the open palm of the left hand. This is a distinction that is not often adhered to, I regret to say, and yet it is these little distinctions that make the niceties and accuracy of the sign-language just as of spoken language. But to go back to the signs for the divisions of time—the origin of them is very interesting, as they are based on the relative positions of the sun and the earth, the right hand representing the sun in its course through the sky, while the left hand represents the horizon. 5