B hands acting in neutral space, or for both hands at the face. Besides the shape of the hands, the dez includes their orientation. This is indicated, when necessary, with subscripts, which are introduced in the next section. There are three diacritics that modify the shape of the dez. A dot placed above it shows that a finger not normally seen is prominent, usually because it is involved in the production of the sign. For example, ( 'A) is a fist with the thumb extended, as in . Three dots or ticks over a letter shows the fingers are flexed, so that ( ;B) is a flexed flat hand, and (;V) is two flexed fingers. The forearm tab sign prefixed to the dez ( j) shows that the forearms are prominent in the production of the sign, as in . Sig (movement) and dez orientation The movement of the hand, or sig, is written with superscripted letters after the dez, as D# (any dez D which closes). Multiple movement sigs are arranged linearly when the movements are sequential, as in TD×∨× (any dez D which touches a tab T, moves down, and touches again),1 but stacked one above the other when signed simultaneously, as in TD×ͮ (a dez which moves down while in contact with the tab).2 A dot placed above the sig indicates that the motion is sharp, as in TD×̇ (sharp contact by the dez D),3 while a dot placed after the sig indicates that the motion is repeated, as in TD×· (repeated contact by the dez; TDx" in ASCII). A tilde with a two-hand dez, TDDs~, indicates that first one hand performs the sig, then the other. Without the tilde, both hands are understood to act together. A subset of the sig symbols used for motion are also used to indicate the orientation of the hand. In this use they are subscripted after the dez instead of superscripted, as in D# (any dez D which starts off closed).4 Stokoe analyzed the orientation of the hand as part of the tab, the handshape. * Proper display requires installation of the Stokoe font available at the external link below. 1 TDx-v-x in ASCII 2 TDxv in ASCII 3 TDx! in ASCII 4 Closing hand and closed hand would be D# and #D in the ASCII system. Several linguists, including Kyle & Woll, state that Stokoe's tab conflates two parameters,