Ya hungry?
ASL sign for COOK
How to sign “cook” in American Sign Language (ASL)? “Overcook”, “undercook”? Cook like a pro or chef?
Meaning: To prepare (food) by the use of heat, as by boiling, baking, or roasting.
Pronunciation (sign description): Dominant flat hand (handshape) with the palm down (orientation) moves down on the non-dominant palm-up flat hand and then flip the dominant palm up and taps on the non-dominant, non-moving palm (location and movement).
Beyond basics/advanced
The ASL sign above is a basic sign, at least for beginners. However, observe how Deaf fluent and native signers inflect it to convey a gradient of meanings, such as “skillful cook like a chef”, “cook a lot”, etc. These of the ASL base word are not variations, but inflections using movements and mouth morphemes.
Learner tip: Sometimes some Deaf signers sign PANCAKE that looks similar to COOK. Context as always.
overcook
Meaning (overcook): to cook (food) too much or for too long or at too high a temperature.
cook like a chef/pro
Meaning: cook like a chef; skillful in cooking.
cook a lot/long
Meaning: cook a lot; cook for a long time.
cook with effort
Meaning: cook with a lot of effort; work hard cooking.
Kid signing “cook”
The time-lapse video shows how the bilingual ASL-speaking toddler signed “cook” in the early language acquisition.
The bilingual ASL-speaking toddler uttered “cook”, which emerged at about age 1;3 during the blooming one-word stage. While the handshape is one of few unmarked which is not hard for toddlers to form, but movement takes a bit longer to develop as toddlers learn how to finely control the motor from shoulder to fingers and knuckles over time (proximalization).
How she uttered it in term of the movement at this age during the one-word stage is similar to “book” and maybe other few signs. However, mother would know their kid best and context helps too.
Vocabulary
Related signs: BEAT/MIX, STIR, BAKE, FRY, BOIL.
Of course, FOOD.
ASL/Deaf Anecdotes
“Lol, I remember working for this diner. The owner said he hired me simply because he saw a blind woman doing well on Hell’s Kitchen, and figured if blind can do it, then deaf can! I was flabbergasted.” – Estefania Pena [Sept. 9, 2020 @ Marcus Bryant FB)]
Written ASL
[Note: ASL writing is not an official standard. This sign language writing remains in a state of open space to allow room for experiment, evolution, and improvement.]
Written ASL digit for “COOK” contributed by Adrean Clark in the ASLwrite community, 2017.
This ASL verb (video not available at this time) means cooking with talent or skill, or cooking a gourmet (‘oo’ mouth morpheme), or cooking with a lot of time and/or effort (‘puff’ mouth morpheme).
