Small Single Finger Flick

It marks one small flick that opens a finger’s middle joint. SignWriting shows this movement with a light or hollow dot beside the finger that straightens. One mark records one flick; two matching marks record two straightenings.

Read it beside the handshape and other marks. SignWriting lays a sign out in two dimensions, combining handshape, movement, location, contact, and facial movement; that arrangement gives the notation its reading. The flick mark itself is not a word or a standalone sign, and it does not name one universal idea across sign languages.

Where did SignWriting come from?

It developed from dance notation into a way to write signed languages. In 1974, researchers at the University of Copenhagen asked Valerie Sutton to record signs and gestures from videotape. Danish Sign Language was the first language recorded in SignWriting.

It began as DanceWriting, Valerie Sutton’s notation for recording visible movement. Work with Deaf readers, newsletters, dictionaries, and software later broadened it into a general writing system. Its movement marks describe how a sign is formed instead of translating it into spoken-language words.

How do I type the SignWriting flick symbol?

Use a SignWriting-capable editor or font. In SignWriting in Unicode (SWU), 𝤜 is a Unicode character that code can insert directly or through a Unicode escape. The character alone does not specify where the other marks in a complete sign go.

For one finger movement, beginning and ending handshapes can sometimes show the change clearly without a separate flick mark. Use the explicit movement mark when the notation needs it.