Compound Sign

A sign formed by combining two or more existing signs into a single, unified sign with its own distinct meaning. In American Sign Language and other sign languages, compound signs undergo phonological changes where the component signs may be shortened, blended, or modified when produced together. For example, the ASL signs for THINK and MARRY combine to form BELIEVE. Understanding compound signs can be challenging for sign language learners because the combined form may look different from the individual component signs, making dictionary lookup difficult.