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Definition
Question: What is fingerspelling?
Answer: Fingerspelling is the process of spelling out words by using hand shapes that correspond to the letters of the word. A set of hand shapes used to spell words is know as a 'manual alphabet.'
There are many different manual alphabets throughout the world. American Sign Language uses the ASL Manual Alphabet. You may also see the ASL Manual Alphabet referred to as the American Sign Language Fingerspelled Alphabet.
The American Fingerspelled Alphabet consists of 22 handshapes that--when held in certain positions and/or are produced with certain movements-- represent the 26 letters of the American alphabet.
Discussion
Question: When should you use fingerspelling?
Answer: There are lots of times when fingerspelling is used. The typical 'these things are spelled' list includes such items as:
- people's names
- places
- titles
- organizations
- brands
However, that list is so woefully inadequate as to be silly. It only scratches the surface of the variety of fingerspelling going on.
For example, flowers. Where are 'flowers' on that list? (Other than the sign 'ROSE' there really aren't any well established signs for 'flowers').
How about food? While there are quite a few signs for various food items, there are thousands of types of foods that have no established sign. Hold on to your chair when I tell you this--there isn't even a widely accepted sign for burrito. (As opposed to a burro, which is a small donkey. We do have a sign for 'donkey,' but try showing a picture of a both a donkey AND a mule to 10 different Deaf people and watch 'em tell you 'mule is spelled.') And a mule is a relatively common animal -- don't even get me started on 'ring-tailed lemurs!'
Additionally, the list above is so overly broad to be silly. There are existing signs for numerous places, titles, organizations, brands, and even people. A blanket statement that you should 'spell them all' is inaccurate.
Many years ago the Oregon School for the Deaf (in Salem, Oregon) published a sign language dictionary containing around 10,000 individual signs. It was likely the largest printed sign language dictionary of its time. Compare that though with a typical college-level English dictionary which has about 180,000 words in it.
Do the math. 180,000 'words' minus 10,000 'signs' leaves about 170,000 'words' unaccounted for. A huge number of concepts do not have dedicated 'signs.'
Should we spell all of those concepts?
If an ASL/English bilingual person wishes to express a concept for which they know the English word but for which there is no existing sign and there is no convenient method of combining other signs to express it, or the closest existing sign has multiple meanings and the signer wants to specify a less common meaning of that sign -- then there is a high probability the person will fingerspell it.
But hold on. A skilled ASL signer can combine existing signs and/or use depictive signing (sometimes referred to as 'classifiers) to clearly express almost any concept. For example, the concept 'Venn Diagram' doesn't show up in any ASL dictionary listing (as of this writing), but any skilled signer of ASL can easily show a Venn Diagram by using their hands and fingers to depict circular shapes and then adding the sign 'OVERLAP' (Note: As of this writing, the sign 'overlap' isn't in any ASL dictionary either, yet all skilled signers of ASL know how to sign the concept).
So, 'When and how should we use fingerspelling?'-- is a simple question with a complex answer.
The answer is so complex in fact that it would take a book-length discussion or a college class to do the question justice.
Proficiency Objectives:
What do I want you to know or be able to do at the end of this course?
Below I'll post a list of knowledge, skills, and abilities -- going from easy to challenging:
* Knows proper placement of hand
* Understands concept of simultaneous attention to lip & hand movements
* Can recognize each letter of the alphabet when signed slowly
* Can fingerspell each letter of the alphabet slowly
* Can recognize at least one variation of numbers 0 - 31
* Can sign at least one variation of numbers 0 - 31
* Knows how to form double letters
* Knows different forms of individual letters, specifically E, M, N, G, T, B, Z
* Can recognize letters fingerspelled quickly and in random order
* Can recognize variations in numbers 0 - 31
* Can recognize numbers 0 - 31 signed quickly in random order
* Understands principles and circumstances related to phonetically correct mouth movements while fingerspelling (correct mouthing as if saying the word--rather than mouthing individual letters)
* Can mouth name accurately while fingerspelling
* Knows how to sign variations of hundreds, thousands, millions, billions and so forth.
* Can recognize letters in a two handed speed drill (simultaneous presentation)
* Can recognize numbers in a two handed speed drill
* Can sign numbers 0 - 1,000,000
* Can recognize 3 letter words
* Can play Bingo in ASL with little difficulty
* Can fingerspell 3 letter words
* Can recognize 4 and 5 letter words
* Can fingerspell 4 and 5 letter words
* Knows how to sign and recognize a decimal point
* Knows how to recognize and produce fractions
* Knows how to count dollars up to 9 and handle general money concepts
* Knows how to sign ordinal numbers
* Knows how to sign phone numbers, addresses, and long numbers
* Knows how to keep score
* Can recognize long words spelled at a moderate pace
* Can recognize regionally common words fingerspelled very quickly
* Can recognize long numbers (up to seven digits) when done quickly
* Can recognize long words fingerspelled quickly
That might seem like quite a bit, but really it is several different levels of the same few skills.
You can do it.
Charts
Click ►here◄ to access various fingerspelling charts.
Resources