diffent ways to sign 'g' between Vol. 5 and 13?

[andyw]

I'm new to ASL, and we recently bought all 13 DVD's of Signing Time to teach my son. Today while watching Volume 13 ("Welcome to School"), I noticed that Rachel signed the letter 'g' (when spelling 'glue') different than she did in Volume 5 ("ABC's"). And at the end of Volume 13, there's a summary of the alphabet, and the 'g' shown there is different also. Can someone explain why they're so different? Here's screen captures of the 3 different ways she signed it:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9712/45475623iq6.jpg

[lletiecq]

I think the middle screen capture is of Rachel changing her hand from "g" to "l" for glue.

That is my guess.

As for the other two, they seem to be different angles of the same sign. I am not sure about why she did them those two different ways. Perhaps it was an attempt to make it easier for you to see in two dimensions the placement of the fingers.

I am sure someone with more knowledge than me will chime in with a clearer answer....


Laura in Manassas, VA

[andyw]

Nope, the middle picture is what she signs when she says "g", and she does it the same way 3 times during the 'glue' segment. I noticed the kids that sign 'glue' all do 'g' with the thumb sticking up like that too.

[5TAL55]

It is still the same G, just slightly different angle of holding the hand. You need to remember that fingerspelling is like handwriting, it is not always exactly the same every time you write it or sign it. The letters are fluent. Like script. And also remember the letter is determined by which fingers are used. A "G" signed by a left handed person would look similar, but opposite.

[Kylesmama]

When I took an ASL course last fall, the instructor showed us three separate forms for the letter "g". Two looked like the first and third examples shown in the screencaps, but I don't remember the third one (nor if it looked like the middle screencap). To me it seems there is actually, in some sense, even more of a difference than different angles (if the person being signed to stays in the same place) -- in the first screencap the thumb is below the index finger, and in the third it is alongside (same horizontal plane as) the index finger. But yes, same hand shape from what I can tell, from both my instructor and Rachel on the TV -- just rotated differently by the signer (and also held differently in relation to their own body).

I'm going to have to go look at "glue" again (second screencap). But picking out letters in finger spelling, especially fluent finger spelling, I find very difficult.

Carolyn

[3girlsmom]

The different Gs were confusing people in my beginning ASL class last week and it reminded me of this thread. When my teacher signs G by itself it looks like Rachel in the 3rd example, but if she is fingerspelling something, her thumb pops up and it looks like the GLUE example. I think it is hard for people, because if you are signing A or S the thumb position is important to be able to tell the letters apart, but then some letters are a bit flexible. :) Anyway, I guess it is a common question. I had never really thought about it before reading this thread.