Fingerspelling

Fingerspelling is a system for manual representation of written words in a signed language and is a component of many of the world’s signed languages. In most systems examined to date, manual letters are produced with one hand. Examples of one-handed systems include American Sign Language (ASL), French Sign Language (LSF), Mongolian Sign Language (MSL), and Swedish Sign Language (STS). In a minority of languages, fingerspelling is produced with two hands. Examples include British Sign Language (BSL) and Turkish Sign Language (TİD). In one- and two-handed systems, there is a one-to-one correspondence between manual and orthographic letters. Thus, there are 26 fingerspelling forms (combination of handshapes and orientations) in ASL and BSL used to represent the 26 letters of the English alphabet.

Fingerspelling systems can, however, ...