Cape Town 07 is an initialised sign with the handshape in lower-case C in SASL. This is also the alphabet letter C in British Sign Language. This variant is a lexical variation from both Cape Town 01 and Cape Town 12.
Cape Town 12 is an initialised-descriptive sign that incorporates the X handshape for both hands. The dominant hand moves with the palm facing upwards back and forth across the forearm of the non-dominant hand, which faces palm down. This variant originates from the Afrikaans Deaf community. They have a sign for ‘Kaap’, which is a colloquial reference to the areas surrounding Cape Town. This variant is a lexical variation from both Cape Town 07 and Cape Town 12.
Diachronic variation: Language is affected by developments that circumvent generational frames. For example, it will be interesting to track when/if changes to official (spoken) place names influence place name signs.
De La Bat 01 is a descriptive sign that is the same as the sign for HEARING. A possible explanation is that this school used oralism, whereby speech and lipreading was taught and used as the medium of instruction.
De La Bat 03 is an initialised sign with both hands forming the handshape of D. This is from the old SASL alphabet, when SASL still used the two-handed alphabet. The mouthing of ‘De La Bat’ distinguishes this variant from other similar signs. It is a lexical variation from De La Bat 01.
Durban 01 is an initialised sign with the handshape in D. The location of the sign on the forehead distinguishes this variant from other similar signs. This is a lexical variation from Durban 05.
Durban 05 is an initialised sign with both hands forming the letter D in the two-handed alphabet of British Sign Language. The mouthing of ‘Durban’ distinguishes this variation from other similar signs. This is a lexical variation from Durban 05.
East London 02 is an initialised sign with the handshape E followed by L. The movement is to the side, which is the most common form of movement that accompanies initialised place name signs.
East London 12 is an initialised two-handed sign that commences with the dominant hand in the handshape E, followed by L placed into the palm of the non-dominant hand. The latter half of the sign is similar to the sign for LOCATION, and thereby indicates that this is a place-name sign. This addition makes it a morphological variation from East London 02.
Eastern Cape 01 is an initialised sign with the handshape E followed by C. This variant has no movement, making it a phonological variation from Eastern Cape 02.
Eastern Cape 02 is an initialised sign with the handshape E followed by C. This variant includes movement to the side, making it a phonological variation from Eastern Cape 01.
Free State 01 is a descriptive sign. The handshape is in the form of a ‘claw’ that mimics the sign for ORANGE. Most likely this is a reference to the previous name of the province, which was the Orange Free State. It is a lexical variation from both Free State 02 and Free State 05.
Free State 02 is an initialised sign, with the handshape F followed by D. This variation includes no movement. It is a lexical variation from both Free State 01 and Free State 05.
Free State 05 is an initialised two-handed sign with the handshape V, from the Afrikaans name from the province, ‘Vrystaat’. The dominant hand in the handshape V is placed in the flat open palm of the non-dominant hand, similar to the sign for LOCATION. This indicates that Free State 05 is a place-name sign. It is a lexical variation from both Free State 01 and Free State 02.
Gauteng 01 is an initialised-descriptive sign. The sign starts with both hands in the handshape S with the fists atop each other, but this is similar to the British Sign Language alphabet letter G. The dominant hand then moves into the S1 SASL handshape (finger extended) with an upward motion. This mimics the landmark tall Telkom Joburg Tower (also known as the Hillbrow Tower), which was until 2021 the tallest tower in Africa. This variant is a morphological variation from Gauteng 03.
Gauteng 03 is a descriptive sign with the hand in the S1 SASL handshape (finger extended) with an upward motion. This mimics the landmark tall Telkom Joburg Tower (also known as the Hillbrow Tower), which was until 2021 the tallest tower in Africa. It is a simplified version of Gauteng 01 (morphological variation).
Gqeberha 01 is an initialised sign with the handshape P followed by E. The colloquial shortened version of Gqeberha’s previous name, Port Elizabeth, was PE. Gqeberha has two lexical variations. Gqeberha 01, Gqeberha 06 and Gqeberha 08 are all initialised signs that differ on phonological level from each other. Gqeberha 11 is a distinct descriptive variant.
