Motion diagram. A Deaf-recorded clip from the PopSign corpus (CC BY 4.0) exists for this sign and can be placed here.
WAKE-UP
“wake up / awake”
How to make it
Hold closed 'G' hands at the corners of your eyes and flick them open, eyes widening.
Where the sign comes from
IconicThe sign visibly depicts its meaning — a present-day resemblance, not a historical claim.
The eyes opening, shown by the fingers.
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.
Handshape
Starts as index and thumb parallel, pointing sideways; ends as index up, thumb out — an l shape.
Also: letter G
Location
Eye
Made at the eye.
Movement
the hand opening and closing
Both hands move together.
Palm facing in.