Signs for BOOK

a drawing of book
A drawing by Juli, age 5.

ASL sign for BOOK

Meaning: a handwritten or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.

Pronunciation (sign description): Two-handed flat hands (handshape and orientaton) held together in space (location) open apart with the bottom edges of the hands staying together once or twice (movement).

As a noun, the movement of this sign is formally twice. However, the movement may be once in effect of phonological co-articulation even if it's a noun in sentence.

Vocabulary

Related signs: READ, BOOKSHELF, BOOKISH, BOOKWORM.

Related signs for parts of a book: BOOKCOVER, BOOKCASE, SPINE (a part of the book), BOOKMARK, BOOKBINDERY, HARDCOVER.

Related signs for different types of books:

Dear DIARY,

Today was a Friday's library day at school. Brett the bookworm always picks a bestseller NOVEL and the bully typically skims a PAMPHLET near the exit door. Today, it was the first time the bully picked up a DICTIONARY. Unfortunately, it wasn't to look up a word or admire the WORK, but rather to beat bookish Brett with it. I think it's safe to say that STORY left an impression on him. It wouldn't have been so bad if it were a PAPERBACK or a NOTEBOOK, but this was a TOME! The teacher wrote a report of the incident in the LOGBOOK next to the piles of JOURNAL entries from all cruise lines, which for some reason our library had on hand. Perhaps next time to be safe the bully will choose to read an e-book on his tablet? One thing's for sure, Brett won't be asking the bully to sign his YEARBOOK!

One lonely piece of work sitting on a shelf that nobody reads but looks at is the BOOK ART.

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First 100 words.

  1. again
  2. also
  3. ask
  4. bad
  5. boy
  6. but
  7. can
  8. come
  9. deaf
  10. different
  11. drink
  12. drive
  13. eat
  14. email
  15. excuse
  16. family
  17. feel
  18. few
  19. find
  20. fine
  21. fingerspell
  22. finish
  23. food
  24. for
  25. forget
  26. friend
  27. get
  28. girl
  29. give
  30. go
  31. good
  32. have, has, had
  33. he
  34. hearing
  35. hello
  36. help
  37. home
  38. how
  39. Internet
  40. know
  41. later
  42. like (feeling)
  43. little
  44. live
  45. man
  46. many
  47. me
  48. meet
  49. more
  50. my
  51. name
  52. need
  53. new
  54. no
  55. not
  56. now
  57. ok, okay
  58. old
  59. other
  60. please
  61. remember
  62. same
  63. say
  64. school
  65. see
  66. she
  67. should
  68. sign, signed word
  69. slow
  70. some
  71. sorry
  72. store
  73. take
  74. tell
  75. text, sms
  76. thank, thank you
  77. their
  78. they
  79. think
  80. time
  81. tired
  82. try
  83. understand
  84. use
  85. wait
  86. want
  87. what
  88. when
  89. where
  90. which
  91. who
  92. why
  93. will
  94. with
  95. woman
  96. work
  97. write
  98. yes
  99. you
  100. your

As you feel more comfortable with the first few hundreds of ASL signs, progress further with your vocabulary and learn signing more.