Ace the TExES ASL Challenge 2026 – Sign Your Way to Success!

Movement epenthesis is a term used in sign language phonology to describe the insertion of an additional movement between two signs. This extra movement serves as a transitional gesture that clearly separates the signs and helps maintain the intended timing and rhythm, preventing the second sign from blending with or being mistaken for the first. In other words, it preserves clarity in rapid or adjacent sign sequences. The other options don’t fit because hold reduction focuses on shortening or dropping a hold during transitions, metathesis involves swapping the order of elements, and weak-hand deletion removes motion from the non-dominant hand rather than adding any movement between signs.