Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. These manual alphabets, have often been used in deaf education, and have subsequently been adopted as a distinct part of a number of sign languages; there are about forty manual alphabets around the world. Historically, manual alphabets have had a number of additional applications—including use as ciphers, as mnemonics, and in silent religious settings.
Several manual alphabets in use around the world employ two hands to represent some or all of the letters of an alphabet, usually as a part of a deaf sign language. Two-handed alphabets are less widespread than one-handed manual alphabets. They may be used to represent the Latin alphabet or the Cyrillic alphabet.
Gaj's Latin alphabet is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serbo-Croatian and all of its standard varieties: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin.
The Russian Manual Alphabet (RMA) is used for fingerspelling in Russian Sign Language.
The recorded history of sign language in Western societies starts in the 17th century, as a visual language or method of communication, although references to forms of communication using hand gestures date back as far as 5th century BC Greece. Sign language is composed of a system of conventional gestures, mimic, hand signs and finger spelling, plus the use of hand positions to represent the letters of the alphabet. Signs can also represent complete ideas or phrases, not only individual words.
Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with deafblindness. It is based on a sign language or another system of manual communication.
German Sign Language or Deutsche Gebärdensprache (DGS), is the sign language of the deaf community in Germany and in the German-speaking community of Belgium. It is unclear how many use German Sign Language as their main language; Gallaudet University estimated 50,000 as of 1986. The language has evolved through use in deaf communities over hundreds of years.
Polish Sign Language is the language of the Deaf community in Poland. Polish Sign Language uses a one-handed manual alphabet of Old French Sign Language and therefore appears to be related to French Sign Language. It may also have common features with Russian and German sign language, which is related to the history of Poland during the partitions, when Russification and Germanization significantly influenced the Polish language, and may also have borrowings from the sign language used in the Austrian partition. Its lexicon and grammar are distinct from the Polish language, although there is a manually coded version of Polish known as System Językowo-Migowy, which is often used by interpreters on television and by teachers in schools.
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin varieties of Serbo-Croatian, the other being Latin.
The Catalan manual alphabet is used in Catalan Sign Language but wasn't officially recognized as one of Catalonia's official languages until 3 June 2010 when Law 17/2010 of the Catalan sign language (LSC) was approved by the government. The Catalan manual alphabet is single-handed and is extremely similar to the Spanish manual alphabet. As a result, people who use Spanish Sign Language can understand approximately up to 80% of the Catalan sign language.
The Irish manual alphabet is the manual alphabet used in Irish Sign Language. Compared with other manual alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, it has unusual forms for the letters G, K, L, P, and Q.
The romanization of Serbian or latinization of Serbian is the representation of Serbian language using Latin letters. Serbian is written in two alphabets, the Serbian Cyrillic, a variation of Cyrillic alphabet, and Gaj's Latin, or latinica, a variation of the Latin alphabet. Serbian language is an example of digraphia.
The deaf sign language of the nations of the former Yugoslavia, known variously as Croatian Sign Language, Kosovar Sign Language, Serbian Sign Language, Bosnian Sign Language, Macedonian Sign Language, Slovenian Sign Language, or Yugoslav Sign Language (YSL), got its start when children were sent to schools for the deaf in Austro-Hungary in the early 19th century. The first two local schools opened in 1840 in Slovenia and in 1885 in Croatia.
Croatian sign language is a sign language of the deaf community in Croatia. It has in the past been regarded as a dialect of Yugoslav Sign Language, although the dialectical diversity of the former Yugoslavia has not been assessed.
In sign language, an initialized sign is one that is produced with a handshape(s) that corresponds to the fingerspelling of its equivalent in the locally dominant oral language, based on the respective manual alphabet representing that oral language's orthography. The handshape(s) of these signs then represent the initial letter of their written equivalent(s). In some cases, this is due to the local oral language having more than one equivalent to a basic sign. For example, in ASL, the signs for "class" and "family" are the same, except that "class" is signed with a 'C' handshape, and "family" with an 'F' handshape. In other cases initialization is required for disambiguation, though the signs are not semantically related. For example, in ASL, "water" it signed with a 'W' handshape touching the mouth, while "dentist" is similar apart from using a 'D' handshape. In other cases initialization is not used for disambiguation; the ASL sign for "elevator", for example, is an 'E' handshape moving up and down along the upright index finger of the other hand.
The Portuguese manual alphabet is the manual alphabet used in Portuguese Sign Language. Compared to other manual alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, it has unusual forms for many of its letters.
The Ukrainian Manual Alphabet is used for fingerspelling in Ukrainian Sign Language.
The Hungarian Manual Alphabet is used for fingerspelling in Hungarian Sign Language. The most common is the one-handed alphabet near the face, but an adapted LSF-style alphabet is sometimes employed.
An Esperanto manual alphabet is included as part of the Signuno project for manually coded Esperanto. Signuno is based on the signs of Gestuno, but adapted to the grammatical system of Esperanto.
