ASL Signs for CANADA

Learn how to sign "Canada" in American Sign Language with a few variants. What does Deaf Canadians use? And the U.S Deaf people?

Meaning: a country in North America bordering with the U.S. to the south and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west.

Pronunciation (sign description): Dominant "10" hand with palm facing the signer taps twice on the side of the dominant-sided chest.

This ASL sign is the official standard in Canada; although, there are a couple of common variants of the sign in the U.S. such as 1) tapping on the opposite side of chest, and 2) tapping on the dominant-sided chest while holding a cloth which Deaf Canadians find it amusing.

Old ASL

Interestingly, despite Deaf Canadians find the "grasping" part amusing, it has been around for over a hundred years as far as published in 1910!

"Canada -- Grasp the coat lapel (or an imaginary lapel) with the right hand and give it a little shake." Ref (1910)

So, after all, the U.S. variant isn't a deviation. :)

Vocabulary

ASL signs for the provinces in Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland.

Related signs: O Canada.

Deaf Culture/History

The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) recognized American Sign Language (ASL), Quebec Sign Language (LSQ), Indigenous sign languages as the primary languages of deaf people in Canada in June 2019.

In Canada, there are 357,000 Deaf Canadians and 3.21 million hard-of-hearing Canadians. Ref

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