Why does variability in handshape articulation in sign language disproportionately affect recognition of certain phonemes over others?

💡 Explanation

Feature hierarchies in sign language phonology dictate that some features, such as handshape, are more crucial for distinguishing certain phonemes. Because of this hierarchical organization, variability in handshape impacts these phonemes disproportionately. Therefore, recognition accuracy decreases unevenly, rather than uniformly, across the phoneme inventory.

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