There is no widely established sign for "scarecrow."
Ha!
So, what to do?
Good luck. You are going to be criticized by "someone" regardless
what you do so armor up and move forward.
For "now" I'm going to suggest you sign
SCARE + BIRD because, after all,
that is what scarecrows do!
Since you are doing a compound sign just use a small movement for
"scared" and a single (non-repeated) movement for BIRD. Do the
combination quickly and without the "scared" facial
expression.
See below for more discussion (if you feel like it).
Notes:
In a message dated 10/22/2002 4:39:13 PM Central Daylight Time, Anna writes:
Dr.
Bill,
I have been going crazy trying to find the sign for scarecrow and was thrilled when a search for it brought me to your website. Unfortunately, it is one of the signs not yet up and running, could you email me a description of it as soon as possible? I have some elementary teachers trying to teach their kids a Halloween song with the word scarecrow in it.
Thanks,
Anna
-------------------
Dear Anna,
There is no widely established sign for scarecrow.
I interviewed dozens of expert signers.
No sign, nada, zip. Sorry.
There are workarounds, of course.
You can to explain it the first time. Then you can establish a sign for it to be used during that SAME conversation.
For storytelling to young children you could do a mime-type sign wherein you hold your arms up and tilt your head as if you were a scarecrow. Most of my peers seemed to agree that such a sign would be adequate for various storytelling activities if it were properly introduced.
If you are chatting with a Deaf farmer you could sign "SCARE" plus "BIRD."
However, would you believe that none of the (Deaf) people I showed
that (compound) sign to liked it. Bah! I think I'm just surrounded by language purists. I reckon if I asked a wider audience I'd get a fair number who would go for "SCARE + BIRD."
What I really want to do is find a native Deaf adult farmer (who
has his own scarecrow) and has him (or her) how he signs scarecrow! But, until I actually
do meet such a farmer and/or get any sort of consensus, I'm going to
recommend that if you want to be "safe" then spell out S-C-A-R-E-C-R-O-W if
you just need to convey it once or twice. If you've got to tell a story
about a scarecrow and use the word again and again I recommend you establish
a conversation specific mime-type sign for "SCARECROW" (or sign SCARE+BIRD).
Cordially,
- Dr. Bill
p.s. If you go the fingerspelling route, then abbreviating
"scarecrow" to SC on the second and future references might save you
from a hand cramp.
In a message dated 11/17/2006 1:59:17 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
cpt.scarecrow@ writes:
Hello,
I've just started learning sign language a bit. And so far I just
know a few words and the alphabet.
However I wanted to post a "Thank You" movie on
Youtube.com for someone who had introduced me to sign language
in basic signs. I found most words online. However for my nickname
(Scarecrow) I didn't find a single sign. The only somewhat helpful
page I found was
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/s/scarecrow.htm in
which you tell someone that there isn't a scarecrow sign (yet).
I was thinking about that, and although I'm completely new to sign
language, the "mime-type sign wherein you hold your arms up and tilt
your head as if you were a scarecrow" as you suggested seems a bit
of a large sign to me. I was also thinking more into the lines of
scare+bird, but as you said the "experts" didn't like that I thought
of another sign.
I based my nickname on the book Scarecrow from Matthew Reilly. The
origin of the main characters nickname 'Scarecrow' is based upon
vertical scars running over each of his eyes (which were inflicted
during torturing). I don't know much about scarecrows, but since the
author of the book thought vertical scars over the eyes would make
people think of a scarecrow i thought that could be used as a sign
for it.
So the sign I would suggest for "scarecrow" would be to hold both
your index fingers in front of your eyes.
Does this seem like a good sign to you, and more importantly, is it
a new sign, or does it already mean something else?
Thanks in advance for your answer,
-
"Scarecrow"
Dear
"Scarecrow,"
Hmmm, I don't think the general Deaf community would go for the vertical
index fingers in front of the eyes. I personally don't care for it much
either since when I think of a scarecrow I don't think of scars on the eyes.
I do think of "hay" poking out from the collar and the sleeves though. Thus
a sign based on crossing the hands over the chest so that the fingers poke
out from the neck as if representing "hay" might be an interesting
possibility.
I will ask around again (now that I'm in a different state from where I
did my earlier research) and see what people think around here or if any of
them already have a sign.
Something to consider: Even though I don't recommend the "vertical
index fingers in front of the eyes" sign to be used as a general
sign for "scarecrow" it occurs to me that such a sign would make
a very interesting namesign for you personally (since you
like being referred to as "scarecrow").
--Dr. Bill
You can learn
American
Sign
Language (ASL) online at American Sign Language University ™
ASL resources by Lifeprint.com © Dr. William Vicars
