The atom could be exited by raising the "E", and de-exited by lowering the "E" (the excitation of an atom implies that the energy is raised and an electron get to an orbit farther from the nucleus). If the de-excitation was followed by an emission of radiation, the "E"-shape would change to an outward burst at the end of the movement.

Excitation	de-excitation	de-excitation (of an atom) w/emission of radiation

Some of the principles from the foreign sign languages were not easily adaptable. For instance, in ASL the sign for 'element' is based on the sign for 'basic', which is a B-hand circulating under a flat hand. Thus in ASL the 'element' sign becomes an E-hand circulating under a flat hand. In NSL, "basic" is one flat hand on top of the other, and "element" in Norwegian is a composite word, 'grunnstoff' composed of 'grunn' meaning 'basic' and 'stoff' meaning substance. Our NSL sign "element" became a composite sign, "basic"+ "substance".

Basic ASL	Element ASL

Basic/basis NSL	Substance NSL	Element NSL