More inquiry about sign and spoken languages:
When they say in some language book i am reading that "in ASL(American sign language) the letters of the English alphabet are represented by a series of hand shapes and movement", they do not mean that every separate letter represented by special hand gesture for it but the whole set of letters for a word represented by one shape or movement of hand composed of continuous gestures right ?
3 Answers
the letters of the English alphabet are represented by a series of hand shapes and movement"
To show some of the individual letters, yes there is a shape and sometimes a movement.
they do not mean that every separate letter represented by special hand gesture for it
Yes, every letter is unique. But only used to spell out as Rev said.
but the whole set of letters for a word represented by one shape or movement of hand composed of continuous gestures right ?
Yes, when there is a gesture for that word (or phrase).
Visit this site and watch them spell out a word (bottom, left of the page). Click the advanced sign (bottom, center of page) link and what them gesture a phrase, rather than spell it out.
corrected link (www.lifeprint.com)
I am not sure what you are reading. ASL only uses fingerspelling for very limited purposes, such as proper names or to clarify possibly ambiguous signs.
There are fingerspelling hand shapes and movements for each letter of the English alphabet. But it is very misleading to reduce ASL to fingerspelling.
