Fingerspelling - Definition and Overview

A manual alphabet is a system of representing all the letters of an alphabet, using only the hands. Making words using a manual alphabet is called fingerspelling. Manual alphabets are a part of sign languages.

The two main manual alphabets used for spelling English words are:

• the one-handed manual alphabet as used in American Sign Language and, with slight modifications, International Sign Language.
• the two-handed manual alphabet used in British Sign Language as well as in the related languages of Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Fingerspelling is used in sign language for words and names for which there is no sign. Although, some words are preferably fingerspelt even when there is an equivalent sign. Fingerspelling can also be used for emphasis, clarification, or (sometimes extensively) when teaching or learning a sign language.

Fingerspelling is often rapid so that the individual letters become difficult to distinguish, and the word is grasped from the overall hand movement.

Communication with deafblind people also uses manual alphabets. Examples are the Deafblind Manual Alphabet (touching a deafblind person's hand in special ways signifies letters) or the Block Alphabet (also known as the Spartan Alphabet), in which one traces capital letters of the Latin alphabet in the palm of a deafblind person's hand.

• Cued speech uses a system similiar to a manual alphabet, but uses cues to represent phonemes rather than letters of an alphabet. It also used for different purposes than fingerspelling. Cued speech makes a spoken language visually accessible, and is often used in conjunction with speech. Fingerspelling, on the other hand, allows words from a language's written form to be used within a sign language, and is rarely used by itself.

See also

• American Sign Language alphabet

External links

• Deafblind alphabets (http://www.deafblind.com/card.html) explained with graphics for the sighted.