Motion diagram. This sign is outside the licensed video corpus, so the diagram is its full record here.
MY
“my / mine”
How to make it
Place a flat hand on your chest.
Grammar
Possessives use a flat hand; plain pronouns (ME, YOU) use a pointing index. Same locations, different handshape.
Where the sign comes from
IconicThe sign visibly depicts its meaning — a present-day resemblance, not a historical claim.
Possession claimed at the body. Pointing the same flat palm at someone means YOUR.
Sources
- ASL-LEX (iconicity)Sehyr, Zed Sevcikova, Naomi Caselli, Ariel Cohen-Goldberg, and Karen Emmorey. "The ASL-LEX 2.0 Project: A Database of Lexical and Phonological Properties for 2,723 Signs in American Sign Language." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 26, no. 2 (2021): 263–277. link
The sign, taken apart
Every ASL sign is built from a handshape, a place it's made, and a movement. Learn to see these three and you can read and store any sign.
Location
Chest
Made at the chest.
Movement
a tap
One-handed.
Palm facing in.