Previous work across sign languages has suggested that perceptual pressures have shaped the properties of signs over time. New modeling work quantifying synchronic variability suggests that indeed, over time signs moved closer to the face as a function of specific properties. In our diachronic, cross-generational approach, we tease apart the effects of transmission over generations (year of entry) and use of a language over years within a community of signers (date of filming). By combining pose estimation and skeletal modeling algorithms, we derived both perceptual and articulatory metrics. We found that over decades of transmission, new signers changed LSN, producing signs closer to the face. We found that over decades of use, with increased experience within the signing community, LSN increased in articulatory efficiency, with a slower signing speed requiring less energy.