Major Cities in US and Canada in ASL

Learn how to sign major cities in the U.S. & Canada.

[@elizabethhurlbut1475]

Thank you so much for posting this. Our teacher quickly went through both countries and cities but without a backup 'hardcopy' of these signs, it's next to impossible to remember them all in one lesson.

[@ministersd]

I appreciate this. It brought back to memory many of the cities I had forgotten how to sign.

[@lindasue8719]

Thank you, great resource! I was very happy to learn the sign of my hometown, Vancouver 😄✌🏼

[@moneykardashiansinasl]

Hi! I love your ASL videos as I think they follow ASL grammar rules well and it's great to have ASL instructional videos come directly from a Deaf person. As a native Deaf Northwestener, I live in Portland and I'm not sure of which Portland you're talking about. If you are talking about Portland, Maine then the movement for Portland in circular fashion is correct but if you're talking about Portland, Oregon then you should sign it in a "slicing" movement, FYI. Keep up with the good work you do! Amy

[@michaelnegron4971]

Miami is BEACH with initialized M (non-dominant hand in open B handshape palm down and dominant hand in M handshape palm up brushing against non-dom. hand like ocean waves at the beach). Hard to explain in words but us Floridians don't spell Miami lol

[@ministersd]

That is interesting. When I graduated college, I met someone who fingerspelled "miami"? Has it changed and this person was from the Deaf community.

[@Okterp407]

I have been told the M/BEACH from 3 or 4 Deaf people.

[@nanacachetez]

Yes, Deaf people from Florida sign Miami like BEACH but initialized with M.

[@LavendarRoses]

@@nanacachetezyes you are correct. I have been living in Florida for 50+ years and we Floridians sign that way. We don’t spell it out.

[@Okterp407]

Thank you. Not using some of these often, I need reminded.

[@OTISMHILL82]

Thank Joseph for this Major Cities in US because ASL That, I got message who want know about this sign for all Major Cities then I have copy this your vlog to them! (Thumbs UP)

[@liztewliztew]

Can someone recommend a good KZbin resource Canadian cities? I did already know Toronto, and it was nice to see Montreal and Vancouver today, but, "please sir, I want some more". 😉😊

[@elizabethhurlbut1475]

While it's not KZbin, Handspeak.com has several Canadian cities in its online dictionary. www.handspeak.com

[@krismandley8845]

When I lived in Wisconsin, I remember using "M" for Milwaukee with the same motion in the video. ??

[@natylove71708]

Can you possibly do a video of foods. Rice, chicken, etc related to a dinner possibly. Thank you :)

[@brandonsmith1198]

Thanks for doing the cities next is the countries

[@TheSes31]

I would like to know Birmingham, AL.

[@ElephantShoe..]

...and Winnipeg! Which is the same as signing Wednesday ☺️

[@mariashields6711]

Do you have a video on Israel terms in asl of all thats happening in Israel right now?

[@Girllude]

I can never find one of San Bernadino 😔 its a pretty big place in California

[@cstarr0215]

Fingerspell

[@jameskuhn3709]

No Denver?

[@Animalgirl115]

Awesome video! But I would be careful when using the sign for Vancouver because my deaf friend told me that's the sign for "vibrator". Maybe that's incorrect or regional though.

[@lynzmalaika]

Great Video! I learned several new ones I didn't know before. I have two corrections/additions for you, however, I'm not sure where you live, so I don't know that your area does them the same as mine... Houston - more to the side of the mouth than right in front. New York also has a sign in addition to finger spelling NYC: Non-dominant hand held in a closed 5 hand-shape with the tips of the fingers pointed outward and partially to the direct of the dominant hand, and dominant hand in a Y- hand-shape going back and forth on the non-dominant hand. (Similar to the old sign for Credit Card, but with a Y instead of an A). Keep up the great videos!! :)

[@CraySockBroski]

hello actually the sign you described is for the state of new york. but a curious question do you know the signs for salem or oakland?

[@lynzmalaika]

Sorry, of those two, I have no idea! Thanks for clarification on the New York one, I thought it was actually used for both, just like in English. Good to know. 😆

[@CraySockBroski]

Lyndsey Hyatt yeah i did too until someone corrected me 😀

[@c.reneesullivan7891]

@@CraySockBroski Salem Mass. or Salem Oregon? Salem Oregon is "S" with slicing movement

[@CraySockBroski]

C. Renee Sullivan Oregon. Thank you!

[@staceylocascio5805]

No Boston? Ouch that hurts ;-)

[@sharonmachlisgartenberg3953]

No Boston (population 650,000, metro area around 5 million) but there was Buffalo (population 276,000) 🙁

[@anokahennepin9452]

Minneapolis isn't moved like that. Just D handshape on the opposite shoulder. No movement.

[@hermanfuechtmann1668]

The sign for Minneapolis is derived from the name of a deaf student who attended Minnesota School for the Deaf in Faribault back in the early days. Some history for you! This person's name is William Edward Dean and his name sign was "D" tapped twice on the opposite shoulder. William Dean was born in Minneapolis on June 12, 1855 to a pioneer lumberman Joseph Dean. Now, Minnesota had just become a state in 1858 and a great many families lived as farmers. There were some other industries such as logging and iron ore mining. Minnesota School for the Deaf in Faribault was established in 1863. William Dean was the only student from Minneapolis who went to MSD while many others lived on farms in rural Minnesota. When students who did not want to spell Minneapolis or struggled to spell the long name, they simply said where William Dean's hometown was..."D". That's how the name stuck ever since!

[@margaretadamski1876]

Where is SALEM, Oregon. likely Portland, Salem, Eugene, Roseburg...Grant Pass..Rogue River.. Klamath Falls

[@c.reneesullivan7891]

Salem Oregon is a couple hours south of Portland.

[@Bloodworia]

Sign language totally blows my mind because i can see no correlation to the word. But then again its like that for most languages

[@nanobotjr]

Stiefelknecht You're thinking about it all wrong. You need to remember that ASL is NOT ENGLISH! Stop trying to find correlations, they're two completely different languages.

[@lisablansett6846]

I think as you learn more, you'll find there are plenty of signs that enact the concept behind the word (descriptive), although certainly many signed words may seem arbitrary. It's worth knowing the history of the sign because sometimes the history tells you what particular signs represent (for example, the sign for "boy" or "man" references the tipping of a hat, which is what men regularly when ASL was "taking shape"). Meaning also depends on several other factors from movement, location [in relation to the body], orientation, and other non-manual markers. And, yeah, in English the letters t-r-e-e have nothing to do with the idea of a thing with a trunk that grows with branches and leaves or needles. Only onomatopoetic words "sound" like the thing they represent (buzz sounds like the sound a bee might make when lighting on a flower).

[@junbh2]

Like any other language, yeah. It's cool though when there's a sign that does have a connection to its meaning. There often seems to be an etymology that gives some interesting history once you learn it. Like the man-hat example above.

[@patriciavanhaute8451]

Bien

[@eveningdim7167]

You skipped Denver? Why?

[@mejia81004]

Evening Dim he has it in the other, similarly titled vid

[@dawngibson1157]

Harder than I thought

[@tanishagrier2586]

I didn't see you say Denver.

[@mejia81004]

Tanisha Grier he has it in another video that is similarly titled Canada isn't included in that one

[@siucracos]

San Antonio is more on the lip than on the chin. Same for Houston.