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Writing systems for sign language: resources


Image above: "Spring Dawn" in ASL written (translation) by Jolanta Lapiak.

Is there a writing system that represents a signed language? Signed language always has its potential until the emergences of a few writing systems in the early 21st century.

There are about 6800 (spoken) languages in the world (Grimes 2000), yet a small percentage of these have their writing systems. The majority of them is an oral tradition. Like the majority of spoken languages around the world, sign language had no written form until a recent time; although, there had been some attempts to develop writing systems over the past centuries.

American Annals of the Deaf, Volume 43: Mimography by Hutton

Early sign-writing book Specimens of a dictionary of natural signs for the deaf and dumb (1855) by George Hutton (1801-1870) is available online: https://archive.org/details/gu_specimensdict00hutt/

ASL Writing Dictionary

ASL writing dictionary at handspeak.com

Resources

"ASLwrite" in ASL writing. www.aslwrite.com. "ASLwrite" Facebook community. page.

"si5s" in ASL writing. www.si5s.org

Writing in Swedish sign language: https://zrajm.github.io/teckenskrift/

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