1.5.2. Mouthings
Mouthings are articulations of the mouth that are derived from words from the (surrounding) spoken language. In NGT, they can either be full Dutch lexical items or reduced lexical items. The sign mommy, for instance, can be accompanied by the mouthing mama, whichcorresponds to the full Dutch lexical item with the same meaning as the sign.
Reduced mouthings always correspond to the first part of the spoken lexical item, be it the first consonant or the first syllable. For example, the sign maybe can be accompanied by the mouthing mis, which corresponds to the first syllable of the Dutch lexical item misschien (‘maybe’). It was additionally observed that some mouthings are synchronized with the rhythm of the manual part. In signs with a repeated movement, such as, for example, cook, the mouthing ko,which is the first syllable of the Dutch lexical item koken (‘to cook’), is also repeated, yielding the mouthing koko.
Some described that mouthings can fulfill a phonological function in NGT by differentiating or specifying a sign. A first example is the manual form depicted in Figure 2.35, which can express the concepts ‘sister’ or ‘brother’, depending on whether it is accompanied by the mouthing zus (‘sister’) or broer (‘brother’) (note that the manual sign is not glossed as sibling, as it cannot be used without mouthing to mean ‘sibling’).
Figure 2.35. Manual form that can mean either ‘sister’ or ‘brother’, depending on the accompanying mouthing (Crasborn et al. 2020, symbols added).
Secondly, mouthings can narrow down the meaning of a sign. There is, for instance, a manual sign which carries the general meaning ‘group’ (Figure 2.36). By means of a mouthing, this sign can receive a more specific meaning; it may, for instance, also be used to express the meanings ‘class’, ‘team’, or ‘association’.
Figure 2.36. The sign group (groep), which can take on more specific meaning, depending on the accompanying mouthing (Crasborn et al. 2020).
For the sake of completeness, let us add that there are also optional specifying (morphemic) mouthings. The sign hair, for instance, could be accompanied by the mouthing blond (‘blond’) to specify the colour of the hair.
Other forms of optional specifying mouthings are inflected lexical items. An example is the mouthing geschrokken (‘shocked/frightened’) accompanying the sign shock.
It has been observed that mouthings can occur on their own, without a manual part. On researcher found in her data that the majority of mouthings without a sign correspond to Dutch function words, prepositions or adverbs. This might imply that these mouthings mainly occur when no sign is available, but others encountered this phenomenon also in constructions where manual and (other) non-manual strategies are in principle available, such as in conditional clauses (see also PHONOLOGY 3.5.1). An example is the conditional clause in Example 1, where the mouthing als (‘if’) occurs on its own, next to raised eyebrows marking the conditional clause. Furthermore, multiple manual markers for conditional clauses exist in NGT, meaning that several options for manual marking would be available. Still, apparently, the mouthing can appear by itself as an additional marker without the manual part (in glossed examples, mouthings are provided above the gloss line in italics rather than in phonetic transcription).
1. brother ix3 3pick / palm_up o-k
‘If my brother picks that option, [that’s] okay.’
(CNGT0060, S05, 01:00.426-01:02.610)
Translation of mouthings: if brother pick okay
Interestingly, mouthings also often spread over multiple signs. This phenomenon is further addressed in PHONOLOGY 2.2.1 and PHONOLOGY 2.2.2.
As with mouth gestures, it has been observed that there is considerable variation between and even within signers in the use of mouthings, and also with respect to what type of mouthings is used.
[1] Translation of mouthings: if brother pick okay
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.