We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
How a signed language is written down, and by whom. A gloss writes a sign as an English word in capitals: the capitals mark it as a label rather than a translation, so a glossed line is not an English sentence and is a research convention rather than a writing system. SignWriting is the writing system — handshapes as small figures, movement as arrows, expression in a schematic face, laid out in two dimensions because a sign happens in space and in the face at once. Fingerspelling sits underneath both, and is not the language: British fingerspelling is two-handed and American one-handed, and neither is a simplification of the other.
A set of hand shapes standing for the letters of a written alphabet.
A word in capitals standing as a label for a sign, not a translation of it.
A two-dimensional script recording handshape, movement and facial expression.
Raised hands twisting from the wrist, used in place of clapping.
Two hands shown mid-gesture, indicating that interpretation is provided.