Handshape

In sign languages, handshape, or dez, refers to the distinctive configurations that the hands take as they are used to form words.

Handshape is one of five components of a sign, along with location (TAB), orientation (ORI), movement (SIG), and nonmanual features.

Evolutionary forces have led to some handshapes being easier or more natural for humans to produce than others.

[3][better source needed] Not all handshapes occur with every orientation, movement, or location: there are restrictions.

For example, the 5 and F handshapes (the approximate shapes of the hand in fingerspelling 5 and F) only make contact with another part of the body through the tip of the thumb, whereas the K and 8 (a.k.a.

A sign language interpreter at a presentation. The two handshapes are the flat (B) hand and the tapered (O or M) hand.