The French manual alphabet is an alphabet used for
French Sign Language
French Sign Language (french: langue des signes française, LSF) is the sign language of the deaf in France and French-speaking parts of Switzerland. According to ''Ethnologue'', it has 100,000 native signers.
French Sign Language is related ...
(LSF), both to distinguish LSF words and to sign
French words in LSF.
The alphabet has the following letters:
Image:LSF LettreA.jpg, alt=A fist with thumb extended to the side, A
Image:LSF LettreB.jpg, alt=An ASL 'B', B
Image:LSF LettreC.jpg, alt=An ASL 'C', C
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreD.jpg, alt=A formal ASL 'D', with the fingers rounded, D
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreE.jpg, alt=A 'claw' hand; thumb does not touch fingers, E
Image:LSF LettreF.jpg, alt=Like an ASL 'F', but fingers are splayed, and the thumb touches the outside of the index finger at the middle joint, F
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreG.jpg, alt=Like an ASL 'G', but pointed upward, G
Image:LSF LettreH.jpg, alt=An ASL 'horns' hand pointed upward: Extended index and pinkie, thumb lies over other fingers, H
Image:LSF LettreI.jpg, alt=An ASL 'I', I
Image:LSF LettreJ.jpg, alt=A Hawaiian 'hang ten' sign: Like an ASL 'J', but with the thumb extended, J
Image:LSF LettreK.jpg, alt=An ASL 'K', K
Image:LSF LettreL.jpg, alt=An ASL 'L', L
Image:LSF LettreM.jpg, alt=A flat hand (like an informal ASL 'M') pointed to the side rather than down. Palm faces speaker., M
Image:LSF LettreN.jpg, alt=A flat hand (like an ASL 'U' or informal 'N') pointed to the side rather than down. Palm faces speaker., N
Image:LSF LettreO.jpg, alt=An ASL 'O' (rounded), O
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreP.jpg, alt=Like an ASL 'P', but the hand nods downward, P
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreQ.jpg, alt=As ASL 'Q', Q
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreR.jpg, alt=An ASL 'R', R
Image:LSF LettreS.jpg, alt=An ASL 'S', S
Image:LSF LettreT.jpg, alt=Like the French 'F', but with the thumb on the inside of the index finger, T
(seen from the side)
Image:LSF LettreU.jpg, alt=An ASL 'U', U
Image:LSF LettreV.jpg, alt=An ASL 'V', V
Image:LSF LettreW.jpg, alt=An ASL 'W', W
Image:LSF LettreX.jpg, alt=A flexed ASL 'V': Like an ASL 'X', but with two flexed fingers, X
Image:LSF LettreY.jpg, alt=An ASL 'Y', Y
Image:LSF LettreZ.jpg, alt=An ASL 'Z', Z
These are largely similar to the letters of the
American manual alphabet
The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language.
Letters and digits
The letters and digits are signed as follows. In informal contexts, the handshapes are not made as distinctly as the ...
. A few letters (upward G, sideward M and N) are oriented differently, with the result that D and G depend on a difference in hand shape that has been lost from informal ASL, and N looks like an ASL H. Several letters (hitchhiker-thumb A, clawed E, splayed F, nodding P, etc.) have minor differences that suggest a different "accent"; the thumb on A makes it more distinct from S than is American A. Four letters are radically different: H (the ASL '8'/'horns' handshape), J (a swiveling Y rather than I), X (uses two fingers, like a flexed ASL V), and T (just like the French F, but with the thumb on the inside of the index finger instead of on the outside).
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Manual alphabet