Colors
Eight colors — and the borrowing pattern that explains most of them.
Focus
Initialized signs
BLUE, GREEN and YELLOW are the same twist in the same place with a different letter on the hand. That is initialization: borrowing the English word's first letter. It's a documented pattern (Battison 1978), and a fast way to learn a whole set at once.
Not everything is a letter
RED points at the lips; ORANGE squeezes the fruit. And for WHITE and BLACK we say 'unknown' — the shirt-ruffle and eyebrow stories are memory aids, not history.
Signs in this lesson
Open any sign for its full history, sources and minimal pairs.
Brush the tip of an index finger (or 'D' hand) down across your lips.
Hold up a 'B' hand and twist it at the wrist a couple of times.
Hold up a 'G' hand and twist it at the wrist a couple of times.
Hold up a 'Y' hand and twist it at the wrist a couple of times.
Hold a loose fist in front of your chin and squeeze it closed a couple of times.
Place an open '5' hand on your chest and pull it away as the fingers close into a flat 'O'.
Draw an index finger across your forehead, from one side toward the other.
Slide the index-finger side of a 'B' hand down your cheek.
Watch out for
Pairs in this lesson that learners mix up — the drill will test exactly these.
- BLUE / GREEN — Same place and twist; only the handshape differs — B for blue, G for green.
- BLUE / YELLOW — Same twist in the same place with a Y hand.