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WHOX

Motion diagram. A Deaf-recorded clip from the PopSign corpus (CC BY 4.0) exists for this sign and can be placed here.

Question words·Level 1·Video corpus

WHO

who

How to make it

Hold a bent index finger just in front of your chin and flex it a couple of times, brows furrowed and lips slightly pursed.

Grammar

A WH-question sign: hold furrowed brows across the whole question, and put WHO at the end — 'THAT WHO?'

Where the sign comes from

Unknown

No reliable source. We'd rather say so than invent one.

An older variant circles the index finger around the lips. Why the sign sits at the mouth is not established in any source we can cite, so we leave it unexplained rather than guess.

No sources — which is the point of the “unknown” tier. If you know of a documented account, the historical databases are where to check it.

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

Index crooked into a hook.

Also: letter X

Location
Chin

Made at the chin.

Movement
wiggling fingers

One-handed.

Repeated. Palm facing in.

Taught in

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