HamNoSys –
Hamburg Notation System for
Sign Languages
 Thomas Hanke
 Institute of German Sign Language…
 mailto:Thomas.Hanke@sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de
Slides version 2007-11-14
Dienstag, 30. Juni 2009
HamNoSys
 Alphabet with a symbol inventory of
~210 characters
 Overall Structure
Symmetry
Operator
Initial
Configuration
Actions
Handshape Hand
Orientation
LocationNonmanual
Components
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HamNoSys Structure: DGS
Example
HAMBURG

Handshape
Orientation
Location
Actions
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ulna radius
Carpus
Metacarpus
(metacarpals)
Fingers
(phalanges)
distal ph.
middle ph.
proximal ph.
Joints
DIP: distal
interphalangeal
PIP: proximal ip
MCP:
metacarpophalangeal
CMC: carpometacarpal
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Options for Defining
Handshapes
 Manual Alphabet (fingerspelling)
 Joint Positions
 Iconic Names
 Derivation from Basic Types by Movement
 Derivation from Basic Types by Systematic
Modifications
 Arbitrary Codes
 HamNoSys combines these principles
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Handshape Descriptions
 Describes several 100 handshapes
 Very precise ↔ relatively coarse
 Precise in contacts or oppositions
 Coarse wrt joint angles in open
handshapes
 Level of detail motivated by sign
language phonology
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Basic Handshapes
 Six open handshapes
  
  
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Basic Handshapes (2)
 …and six thumb combinations
  
  
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Handshapes from Basic
Handshapes
 plus thumb position
 plus bending
  
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Thumb Positions
   
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Bending
   
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Width of Opening in Thumb
Combinations
  
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Thumb Combinations: Bending
of Selected Fingers
   
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Finger Specifications Override
Defaults
Fingers are numbered from 1-Thumb to
5-little finger/pinky
   
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Finger Specifications Allow
Individual Bending
 
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For this, additional bending
operators exist:
 Fist Position 
 Fist Position with unbent distal joint 
  = 
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For thumb combinations,
finger specifications specify
the selected fingers
 
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Handshapes: Finger Parts
 Crossing Fingers are notated as:
 Lower Finger > Point of Contact > Upper Finger
 Finger Tip
 Finger Nail
 Finger Pad
 Middle Joint
 Base of Finger
 Side of Finger
 
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Thumb inbetween Fingers
    
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Hand Orientation
 3D Info split into 2 parameters:
 Extended Finger Direction
 Defines the Orientation of the Hand Axis
 Palm Orientation
 For a given extended finger direction, defines
palm orientation
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Primary (Extended Finger)
Directions










 



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Secondary Directions
 away from the body, up and to the left
 away from the body, up and to the right
 away from the body, down and to the left
 away from the body, down and to the right
 towards the body, up and to the left
 towards the body, up and to the right
 towards the body, down and to the left
 towards the body, down and to the right
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Palm Orientation
 The black side of the symbol
represents the palm!



 





 


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Example
  Palm up
 Palm right
  Palm up
 Palm away from body
  Palm towards body
 Palm right
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Rule of Thumb for Palm
Orientation
 If I can name a direction as
downwards, upwards, leftwards or
rightwards, then the corresponding
symbol is to be used.
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Locations I: Head
left to left side
of
center of right
side
of
right to
 head
    
 above the head
    
 forehead
    
 nose
    
 below nose
  
 mouth
(see detail page)     
 chin
    
 below chin
  
 neck
    
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Locations II: Mouth
left to left side of center of right side
of
right to
 mouth
    
 teeth
  
 upper lips
  
 upper teeth row
  

upper surface of
the tongue   

blade of the
tongue     

lower surface of
the tongue   
 lower teeth row
  
 lower lips
  
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Locations III: Pairy head
locations
left to the
left
left between
the
two
right right to
the
right
 eye brows
    
 upper eye lids
  
 eyes
    
 lower eye lids
 
 ears
   
 earlobes
   
 cheeks
   
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Locations IV: Trunk
left to left side
of
center of right
side
of
right to
 shoulder line
        
 breast line
        
 belly line
        
 abdominal line
        
left to the
left
left between
the
two
right right to
the
right
 top of shoulder
       
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Locations V: Upper arm (of the
opposite side)
front side back side right side left side
 upper arm    
 elbow    
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Locations VI: Lower arm
right and left handright and left hand right handright hand left handleft hand
handback
side
palm side ulnar side radial side ulnar side radial side

finger tip


fingernail, finger
pad      

middle joint of
finger (PIP)      

base joint of finger
(MCP)      
hand (metacarpals)
     

ball of thumb
     

wrist joint (CMC)
     

forearm
     
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Locations VII: Lower
extremities
left side of
the
left
left right side
of the
left
left side of
the
right
right right side
of the
right
 thigh
     
 knee
     
 shank
     
 ankle
     
 foot
     
 tips of toes
 
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Locations: If you ever need
more detailed positions
 Combine two neighbouring regions:

 Resulting region slightly overlaps with
constituents
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Locations: Distance from the Body
(notated after the location symbol)
 behind the body
 contact with body
part
 close to body part
standard distance
 maximum distance
(extended arm)
 Standard distance depends on size of region,
the smaller the region, the closer standard
distance is
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Movements I
 Absolute Movements (with target)
 Direction and Size are redundant
 
 Relative Movements
 Direction and Size determine end point
of the movement
  
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Movements II
 Path Movements (optionally with target)
 Straight Movements 
 Curved Movements 
 Wavy and Zigzag Line Movements 
 Circular Movements and derived forms 
 In-place Movements
 Replacement of handshape and/or orientation 
 Fingerplay 
 Wrist/forearm movements 
 Nonmanual Movements
 Head Movements etc. 
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Straight Movements
 Schema identical with that for extended
finger direction
 Size specifiers:  small  standard  large














 


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Curved Movements
 Described by the movement arrow
connecting start and end point (the chord)
plus the direction of the arc
 Size specifiers under the movement arrow
determine the length of the movement
 Size specifiers under the arc determine the
amount of curvature
   
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   rightw. leftw. upw. downw.

  

rightw. leftw. upw. downw.

rightw. leftw. away towards

away towards upw. downw.
Mnemonic: Direction of the
Curves
 If you can name the arc direction as rightwards,
leftwards, upwards, downwards, then use the
corresponding symbol.
 In the other cases, interpret the symbol as if it
had a straight line added.
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Wavy and Zigzag Movements
 Described by the movement arrow connecting start
and end point (the chord) plus manner and
direction of the oscillation
 Size specifiers under the movement arrow
determine the length of the movement
 Size specifiers under the oscillation symbol
determine the size of the oscillation
 
 Zigzag line to the right, zags are pointing downwards and
upwards, their size increases over time
 
 Long way line downwards, small bows to the left and right
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Circular Movements
 Main symbol determines orientation in
space and movement direction    
 Size specifier under the circle symbol
determines the circle radius 
 Optional specification of a starting point

 If not whole-numbered turns, specify end
point as well:  (a 270° turn)
 Spiral movements: 
 Elliptic shape movements: 
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Circular Movement Symbols I
 Same planes model as for straight movement
symbols
      
      
 The arrows represent the direction of the normal
vector to the circle described by the symbol above.
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Circular Movement Symbols II
 Here are the symbols for the diagonals:
            
            
 (Once again, the arrows represent the direction of the normal
vector to the circle described by the symbol above).
 The circle is drawn from that perspective where it
is NOT visible as a circle, but as a back and fro
movement.
 The elliptic form of the glyph can be understood
by moving the perspective a bit to the right,
upwards, or backwards.
 The arrow is positioned on that part of the circle
that is closer to the reader.
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Elliptic Shape Movements
 : Elliptic shape (read
football) in the plane in
front of the signer, the
football lying on its side
 Symbols: 
 : The longer axis goes
from top to bottom (or
body to front in the case
of circle symbols in the
horizontal plane.
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In-place Movement
 Replacement of handshape and/or orientation
  ...    ... 
 but cf. relative orientation
 Fingerplay in open handshapes  ... 
 Finger crumbling in closed handshapes ...
 Wrist and forearm movements
 wrist nodding, indefinite number of repetitions
 up-down (WINKEN/WAVE) 
 left-right (WER/WHO) 
 Forearm rotation, indefinite number of repetitions
 turns (SPIEGEL/MIRROR) 
 Single rotation in wrist joint (RÜHREN/STIR)
 to the right 
 to the left 
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Handshape Changes:
Rolling Fingers in or out one
after the other
   Index finger extends first (2345)
   Thumb extends first (12345)
  Index finger extends first, thumb last (23451)
 Little finger extends first (54321)
 Little finger bends first (54321)
   Thumb bends first (12345)
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Movement Modality
!"#$%&$'(!"!





 Fast downward movement
fast
slow
tense
sudden
stop
stoppage
at start
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Brushing & Bouncing
Movement
 Brushing Movement: Contact in the
middle of a path
 Bouncing Movement
 Movement to the palm and small backwards
movement (bounce)
 Movement in signing space with sudden stop
and small backwards movement (bounce)
 KAUFEN (BUY)
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Repetitions
  repeated once
 repeated twice
  repeated a couple of times
  repeated once, 2nd iteration starting
where first ended
  repeated a couple of times, each iteration
starting where previous ended
  repeated in reversed direction
  hands flip roles in 2nd iteration
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Combining Actions
 Sequential Actions
 Action1 Action2
  
 Cotemporal Actions
 [ Action1 Action2 ]
 
 Fusion (fused sequential)
 < Action1 Action2 >
 
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Two-handed Movements
 Two hands in motion: symmetry applies
 Dominant (right) hand to be described
 Symmetry operator determines copy to
nondom hand
 Exceptions can be described if necessary
 Symmetry operators inventory:
      
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Symmetries
 Palm orientations always laterally
equal (i.e. e.g. thumbs pointing to
e.o.)
 Extended finger directions: Left and
right flipped by  etc., otherwise they
remain the same.
 Movements and locations see next
slides
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Symmetries: Movement
symbol flips the marked
directions:
left/right up/down away from /
towards
body

 ✔
 ✔
 ✔ ✔
 ✔
 ✔ ✔
 ✔ ✔
 ✔ ✔ ✔
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Two-handed Locations
 Same notation as in the one-handed case
  Hands side by side (with a certain distance)
  Nondom hand on the opposite side of the body
 Hands tied together
  Hands side by side contacting each other, without contact to the body
  Same as before, but with contact to the body
 Separate notations
  Nondom with reference to the body, dom positioned relative to
nondom
 Contact specified in more detail
  This form also allows one hand on top of the other
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Contacts in Hand
Configurations
 In addition to  the following
symbols are available:
  Interlocking
  Crossing
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Exceptions from Symmetry
Rules
 can be described by means of
[ dominant  nondominant ]:
 
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Mixed Case: Both hands
involved, only one in
movement
 With symmetry symbol, but
movement description like ...
 No symmetry symbol, but ...... for
handshape/direction (and optionally
location), e.g.
 
 Permutation of roles of dom/nondom
 with symmetry symbol: ...
 without:  instead of symmetry symbol
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“Sign Sentences” in HamNoSys
 HamNoSys primarily describes single signs.
 Extension to sentences limited to
 sequential execution of signs
 sentence boundary markers
  sequential execution (fusion, compound)
 , sequential execution
 . sentence boundary, neutral facial expression
 ?! sentence boundary, with some facial expression
  place holder for sign-level facial expression
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Relative Orientation
 Shorter and more natural notation
 BALL (BALL) 
 HAUS (HOUSE) 
 KASTEN (BOX) 
 WELLEN (WAVES) 
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Spatial co-reference
 First use of a location can be labelled:

 Later reference to that location: 
 Symbols: 
 Different labels just for convenience,
not semantic difference
 Example:
,
,

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Left & right vs. ipsi- &
contralateral
 Standard HamNoSys describe righthanded
signing, all left/right
directions are to be mirrored for lefthanded
signing.
 Exception: Strings marked with .
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Underspecification
  = {|||||etc.}
  relaxed handshape or copy of dominant
handshape
  = {||}
  = {|||etc.}
 
 small repeated left-right movement, repeatedly executed
somewhere in the head region
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Nonmanuals in HamNoSys
 For every movement, the hand being the
default articulator can be substituted by
other body parts:  
 This does not allow, however, the
notation of small facial movements:
 No symbols for opening and closing
 Not all parts of the face are available as
symbols
 Mouth pictures cannot be captured in
enough detail with HamNoSys
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Instead: Multi-Tier
Representation
 HamNoSys as the master tier
 Other tiers are synchronised to the manual part tier:
 Shoulders
 Body
 Head
 Gaze
 Facial Expression
 Eye Brows
 Eye Lids
 Nose
 Mouth
 Mouth Picture (derived from spoken language)
 Mouth Gesture
Dienstag, 30. Juni 2009