ASL-phabet, or the ASL Alphabet, is a

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

developed by Samuel Supalla for

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

(ASL). It is based on a system called SignFont, which Supalla modified and streamlined for use in an educational setting with Deaf children. Like SignFont and

Stokoe notation Stokoe notation ( ) is the first phonemic script used for sign languages. It was created by William Stokoe for American Sign Language (ASL), with Latin letters and numerals used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to tra ...

, ASL-phabet is a

phonemic A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...

script, but it has been simplified to the point where there is some ambiguity, that is, one symbol can represent more than one phonemic element (handshape, location or movement). For example, whereas SignFont has 25 letters encoding types of movement, and Stokoe notation has 24, ASL-phabet has just 5. This can result in

homograph A homograph (from the , and , ) is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also be pronounced differently, while the Oxford English Dictionar ...

s (more than one sign spelled the same way). All together, ASL-phabet has 22 letters for handshape, 5 for location, and 5 for movement. They are written in that order, left-to-right, with the possibility for several letters of each type, such as two handshape letters for a two-handed sign. Like Stokoe notation (but unlike SignFont), the ASL-phabet does not provide symbols for facial expressions,

mouthing In sign language, mouthing is the production of visual syllables with the mouth while signing. That is, signers sometimes say or mouth a word in a spoken language at the same time as producing the sign for it. Mouthing is one of the many ways in ...

, and other aspects of sign language structure, which may make it hard to use for extended text. However, it is sufficient to look up ASL words in an ASL–English dictionary. Hulst & Channon (2010) note, "This system, much more than

SignWriting Sutton SignWriting, or simply SignWriting, is a system of written sign languages. It is highly featural and visually iconic: the shapes of the characters are abstract pictures of the hands, face, and body; and unlike most written words, which ...

, acknowledges the fact (rightly, we believe) that a written representation of a word does not need to be a recipe to produce it, but only to be sufficiently unique to act as a trigger to activate the relevant words in the reader's mind." Brief Comparison of ASL Writing Systems

References

External links

ASL-phabet homepage
with an ASLphabet-to-ASL video input system and an ASL-to-English dictionary for children American Sign Language Sign language notation Alphabets {{sign-lang-stub