Writing History
Last updated December 11, 2024
Overview
The history of creating a unique writing system to document a signed language spans about two hundred years, based on available records. In that time, many people have contributed to the creation of a number of different writing systems of this kind. Most of these have been designed for academic research, to capture only the relevant features of interest; whereas the few others have been designed with the intent of functioning as an orthography for a whole language.
The earliest public record we have found of a writing system for a signed language was published in Paris, in 1825, by Auguste Bébian, a French educator of the deaf. Thirty-six years later, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, James Brown, an American educator of the deaf, published his own original system. After this, a gap of about ninety-nine years elapsed without any apparent publications of this nature. Then, finally in 1960, William Stokoe, an American linguist, and his collaborators published and disseminated their own original system. Following their work, a relatively steady stream of new writing systems have been created, with a new publication appearing on an average of every 3.5 years.
In the following section, we have made an attempt to document all the most prominent efforts people have made to develop writing systems for signed language and further promote Sign language writing. The majority of writing systems on this page have been developed specifically for the writing of American Sign Language, while others have been developed for writing either another signed language or all signed languages.
The content on this page is a result of our ongoing work to summarize any publicly available articles, papers, books, webpages, and video series that have introduced novel writing systems or adaptations of previous work on writing signed languages. These summaries are listed chronologically based on the date of publication or posting. For some sources, particularly those dated before the mid-1900s, it is important to be aware of outdated terminology which, in some cases, may be considered offensive today. Likewise, for that same time period, signed languages were not referred to by language names or corresponding acronyms, such as American Sign Language and ASL, or langue des signes française and LSF. It is also important to be aware that several gaps in publication have occurred since 1825. We believe this may be due to a lack of documentation available to the public.
We are also aware that a great deal of fundamental work involving writing systems has been achieved in the field of Sign language linguistics, especially since the 1960s. We have included several of these efforts in our descriptions below; however, we have refrained from citing every instance of a direct borrowing of an existing system. Since such publications would be numerous, they will be outside the scope of this page for the time being. Additionally, systems used in such linguistic research that are reliant on the orthography of a spoken language, such as glossing, are outside the scope of this page.
If you have any information about a writing system that we have not included, but does have a publicly available record of the types we have described, then we encourage you to contribute to our website. Please read our Contact Us page for more information.
1800s
1825, France
While a teacher at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris, Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian publishes a book titled Mimeographie, ou essai d’écriture mimique, propre a régulariser le langage des sourds-muets (Mimography, or attempt of mimical writing, suitable to regularize the language of the deaf-mutes). In his book, Bébian describes a writing system for le langage naturel
(the natural language). He calls this system Mimographie
and, while some of the provided examples are typeset, it would otherwise be a handwritten system. Bébian's system contains characters that represent movements of the hands and accompanying accent marks to modify them; characters for horizontal and vertical orientations of the two hands in relation to the signer's body; characters for locations on the head, body, arms, and legs; and punctuation marks to represent changes in the signer's physiognomy. Bébian provides prose descriptions for most of these, as well as examples for several individual signs. He also includes charts of these characters, accent marks, and punctuation marks at the back of the book. A sign is written from the left to right with the following sequence: location, handshape(s) (with palm orientation), movement. Likewise, a written sign is read from left to right.
1861, United States
While superintendent of the Louisiana Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind in Baton Rouge, James Smedley Brown publishes the first twenty-four pages of a dictionary titled A Dictionary of Signs and of the Language of Action, for the Use of Deaf-Mutes, their Instructors and Friends; and, also, Designed to Facilitate to Members of the Bar, Clergymen, Political Speakers, Lecturers, and to the Pupils of Schools, Academies, and Colleges, the Acquisition of a Natural, Graceful, Distinctive and Life-Like Gesticulation, in which he describes a writing system for recording the language of action
and its signs. To do so, Brown uses sequences of Arabic numbers to indicate the location of the hands in relation to the signer's body. He conceptualizes the directions of forward (1 to 9) and backward (-1 to -9) relative to a Zero plane
(0); Roman numerals (i to ix) are used to indicate hand location as being left or right; and capital letters of the Latin alphabet to indicate location on a unique horizontal plane corresponding to the signer's Arm, Head, Forehead, Visage, Mouth, Neck, Sign, Waist, Base, Knee, and Ground
or vertical Central
plane (A, H, F, V, M, N, S, W, B, K, G, C). Only the front matter contains a description of this system. The first fifteen pages of dictionary entries have examples of several individual signs that were typeset by Brown himself. No other content is publicly available. A sign is written from the signer's perspective and is read from left to right.
1960s
1960, United States
While chair of the English department at Gallaudet College in Washington, DC, the hearing professor Dr. William C. Stokoe publishes the monograph titled Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf to introduce a symbol system
for writing of the American sign language,
which he developed with the deaf linguists Carl G. Croneberg and Dorothy C. Sueoka Casterline. Thirty-five pages long, the monograph describes cherology
as being analogous to phonology for the analysis of spoken languages, wherein one can write the aspects
or features of signs. Those being the tabula (tab) for relative body location, designator (dez) for hand configuration, and signation (sig) for movement or change in configuration. The various symbols used to represent each are then described in-depth, along with multiple examples of their use, and they are fully presented in tables at the end of the monograph. Many of the symbols are written into the text by hand, while those found on a standard QWERTY keyboard are not. A sign is written from the signer's perspective and read from left to right. A one-handed sign is written left to right in the following sequence: location, handshape, palm orientation, movement. A two-handed sign is written in the following sequence: location, left handshape, left palm orientation, right handshape, right palm orientation, movement.
1965, United States
Five years after the publication of his monograph, William Stokoe, along with colleagues Carl Croneberg and Dorothy Casterline, publishes a dictionary at Gallaudet College in Washington, DC. The volume is titled A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, and the work presented inside expands on the writing system first introduced in Stokoe's 1960 monograph. Additional details about this dictionary are described on our Library page. Additional details can also be read in the Stokoe notation
Wikipedia article.
1970s
1973, Denmark
According to the SignWriting.org website, at the University of Copenhagen, hearing psychology professors Lars von der Lieth and Jan Enggaard Pedersen have worked to develop a writing system for dansk tegnsprog (Danish Sign Language, abbreviated DTS) in collaboration with the hearing American dancer Valerie J. Sutton. This system is an adaptation of one created by Sutton, originally designed for dance, called the Sutton Movement Shorthand,
which she first had published in 1973. However, at present, no publication of their early writing system is publicly available.
1975, United States
In California, Valerie Sutton publishes a monograph titled Examples of Notation of a South-Pacific Sign Language. In the monograph, Sutton applies the adapted version of the Sutton Movement Shorthand
to several examples of home sign vocabulary from the Solomon Islands, which were borrowed from a 1974 monograph published by the hearing psychology professor Rolf Kuschel, also at the University of Copenhagen, titled A lexicon of signs from a Polynesian outliner island: A description of 217 signs as developed and used by Kagobai, the only deaf-mute of Rennell Island. The system consists of five horizontal lines that are referred to as the Movement Staff,
upon which stick figure line drawings are overlaid to represent the signer's body with movement symbols and asterisks to notate contact locations. In the top corners, drawings represent facial expression, while musical notation and symbols represent frequency or speed of movement, as well as breathing. Above the Movement Staff, a Special Information Box
contains symbols coding minute details of the fingers and hands,
while Position Symbols
are written below the Movement Staff to clarify the drawing of the stick figure.
1975, United States
While a research assistant at the Salk Institute for Biological Research in San Diego, CA, the hearing sign language linguist Don E. Newkirk distributes a working paper on a proposed writing system for ASL, which he refers to as a literal orthography.
In his paper titled Outline for a Proposed Orthography for American Sign Language, Newkirk describes a system of writing ASL that uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet,
the hyphen, and the apostrophe; which are typed using a standard QWERTY keyboard. In addition, his uses six diacritics to modify the twenty-six letters, and these have been written in the paper by hand. Newkirk refers to the written form of a sign as the frame,
which is divided into the preamble,
stem,
and optional suffixes.
The preamble contains characters representing the handshape and palm orientation of the signer's dominant hand, those for the non-dominant hand if relevant, and the spatial relationship between the hands. The stem contains characters representing the movement, location, and point of contact of the hand(s). Diacritics, hyphens, and apostrophes are used to represent the spatial relationship between the two hands, whether or not the two hands have shared features, whether or not the hands share the same movement, and so forth. Twenty-six pages in total, including title page and endnotes, the majority of the paper is used by Newkirk to explain each character of his writing system, providing at least one full example of a written sign form and an accompanying English gloss for each unique use. A sign is written from the signer's perspective and read from left to right. A one-handed sign is written in the following sequence: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement. A two-handed sign with the same handshape on both hands is written in a similar way, however, those with different handshapes use the following sequence: non-dominant handshape, non-dominant palm orientation, dominant handshape, dominant palm orientation, location, movement.
1976, United States
According to the SignWriting.org website, in Boston, MA, Valerie Sutton and colleagues publish the first adaptations of the Sutton Movement Shorthand for ASL. However, at present, no publication of their work is publicly available.
1977, Sweden
While a doctoral student at Stockholm University, hearing sign language linguist Brita Bergman publishes a book titled Tecknad svenska (Signed Swedish). In her book, Bergman devotes a chapter to describing the writing system developed for manually coded form of Swedish, which she refers to as sign notation.
Within that chapter, multiple tables are presented containing several symbols and a label in prose for each. The first two tables show twenty-two unique symbols for handshapes. The next table shows eighteen positional symbols
for locations on the face and body. After that, there is a table of nine symbols for direction of movement,
followed by a table of six for types of movement,
and then a table of nine for types of interaction.
Finally, a table of twelve attitude symbols
is presented, with a column for direction
and one for turning,
which are used to notate palm orientation (or changes in palm orientation). Symbols presented in this chapter are all typeset. An English translation of the book is later published in 1979. A sign is written from the signer's perspective and read from left to right. A one-handed sign is written left to right in the following sequence: location, handshape, palm orientation, movement. A two-handed sign is written in the following sequence: location, left palm orientation, left handshape, right handshape, right palm orientation, movement.
1980s
1981, United States
According to the SignWriting.org website, Valerie Sutton and colleagues first publish a textbook, Sign Writing For EveryDay Use, which is for writing ASL. They also publish a literature series, which are example of writing Signed English or PSE.
However, at present, no copies of these publications are publicly available. Additional details can also be read in the SignWriting
Wikipedia article.
1982, Sweden
While still at Stockholm University, Brita Bergman publishes a report on the writing system called Teckenspråkstranskription
for writing svenskt teckenspråk (Swedish Sign Language, abbreviated STS). In her report titled Forskning om teckenspråk X: Teckenspråkstranskription (Research of Sign Language X: Sign Language Transcription, she has adapted the writing system from her 1977 book. What is presented in the report is a handwritten writing system that uses 100 symbols. There are twenty-two symbols for location, thirty-seven for handshape, nine for direction of movement, seven for the type of movement, nine for the type of interaction, and twelve for attitude. Additionally, there are two symbols for horizontal [–] or vertical [|] relation of the hands, one for repeated articulation [:], and one for compound signs [/]. The forty-six page report provides lists of these symbols with prose descriptions of their use, along with at least one full example of a written sign form and an accompanying Swedish gloss for each unique use. Like the system for Signed Swedish, a sign is written from the signer's perspective and read from left to right. A one-handed sign is written left to right in the following sequence: location, handshape, palm orientation, movement. A two-handed sign is written in the following sequence: location, left palm orientation, left handshape, right handshape, right palm orientation, movement.
1987, Germany
While with the Zentrum für deutsche Gebärdensprache (Center for German Sign Language) at the University of Hamburg, the sign language linguists Siegmund Prillwitz, Regina Leven, Heiko Zienert, Thomas Hanke, and Jan Henning publish an article on the Hamburg Notation System
(HamNoSys) for recording Deutsche Gebärdensprache (German Sign Language, abbreviated DGS) titled HamNoSys. Hamburger Notations System für Gebärdensprachen – eine Einführung (HamNoSys: Hamburg Notation System for Sign Language: An Introduction). A sign is read from left to right. A one-handed sign is written in the following sequence: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement. A two-handed sign is written in the following sequence: dominant handshape, non-dominant handshape, dominant palm orientation, non-dominant palm orientation, location, movement. The unique set of over 200 characters, including superscript and subscript symbols and diacritics, designed for HamNonSys could be typed using a Macintosh computer. Additional details can also be read in the HamNonSys
Wikipedia article.
1987, United States
In California, as a part of the software company Emerson & Stern Associates, Drs. Sandra Hutchins and Don Newkirk collaborated with Dr. Howard Poizner of the Salk Institute and Dr. Marina L. McIntire on the ASL writing project.
In July, at the International Symposium on Sign Language Research conference in Finland, they give a presentation introducing their writing system for ASL called SignFont,
which may be later expanded to accommodate other sign languages. In the fall, they have an article published with the title Hands and Faces: A Preliminary Inventory for Written ASL
in the journal Sign Language Studies. That same year, Newkirk publishes two books in which he describes the use of this writing system in detail, the first titled SignFont Preliminary Handbook (Architect: Version I) and the second titled Signfont Handbook (Architect: Final Version). A sign is written in the following sequence: handshape, location, movement. A unique set of characters were designed for SignFont,
so it could then be typed on a Macintosh computer.
1988, Italy
In Rome, the sign language linguist Serena Corazza develops a writing system for use in her research of lingua dei segni italiana (Italian Sign Language, abbreviated LIS). This writing system is designed to document handshapes in LIS used for various classifier constructions. In May, participating in the second Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) conference at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, Corazza presents her research methodology and findings, which includes her writing system.
1989, Germany
While still at the University of Hamburg, Siegmund Prillwitz, Regina Leven, Heiko Zienert, Thomas Hanke, and Jan Henning publish another article on HamNoSys, titled HamNoSys Version 2.0. Hamburger Notationssystem für Gebärdensprachen – eine Einführung (HamNoSys Version 2.0: Hamburg Notation System for Sign Language, An Introduction).
1990s
1990, Italy
Serena Corazza has a chapter, The Morphology of Classifier Handshapes in Italian Sign Language,
included in the book Sign Language Research: Theoretical Issues, published by Gallaudet University Press, in which she describes her writing system for classifier handshapes used in LIS. The system is typed using thirty-seven characters, namely the capital Latin alphabet letters: A, B, C, F, G, H, I, L, T, V, Y, and the Arabic numbers: 3, 4, 5. Several of these characters are then used again, but modified with a subscript lowercase letter [s] or one of four diacritics.
1997, United States
While studying ASL in Richmond, VA, the hearing student Travis Low publishes a page on his website describing his writing system called ASL Orthography.
For his system, Low uses forty-eight handshapes, which he divides into two categories: Pure Shapes
(26) and Blended Shapes
(22). Each handshape is typed using one character with either an Arabic number or a Latin alphabet letter, or two characters with a number-letter or letter-letter pairing. Twenty-three additional characters, punctuation marks, and superscript letters, are used for handedness, locations, palm orientations, and movement. In this system, the characters are written in different sequences, depending on the handedness of a sign and features of the strong
or weak
hand. A sign's strong
hand is written in the following sequence: body location, palm orientation, handshape, movement, spatial location; whereas, the weak
hand is written in the following sequence: body location, spatial location, palm orientation, handshape, movement.
2000s
2003, Spain
At the Universidad de Alicante, the hearing linguistics professor Ángel Herrero Blanco and deaf assistants Juan José Alfaro and Inmacualada Cascales published a book, titled Escritura alfabética de la Lengua de Signos Española: once lecciones (Alphabetic writing system of the Spanish Sign Language: eleven lessons), describing their writing system for la Lengua de Signos Española (Spanish Sign Language, abbreviated LSE).
2003, United States
In Tucson, AZ, deaf sign language linguists Samuel J. Supalla and Laura Blackburn, have an article titled Learning How to Read and Bypassing Sound
in the fall issue of the magazine Odyssey, which is published quarterly by the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University. In their article, Supalla and Blackburn describe a writing system for ASL that they call ASL-phabet,
which is an adaptation of SignFont
developed by Hutchins, Newkirk, Poizner, and McIntire. Additional details can also be read in the ASL-phabet
Wikipedia article.
2005, United States
In California, the hearing linguist David J. Peterson publishes a page on his website describing a writing system, intended for all sign languages, which he calls Sign Language IPA
(SLIPA). This system is typed, using characters such as Arabic numbers and lowercase, capital, and superscript Latin alphabet letters; as well as, parentheses, square brackets, diacritics, and other punctuation marks. The system also utilizes other typographical symbols, such as underline, double underline, and overline.
2007, United States
According to the si5s.org website, while studying at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, the deaf graduate student Robert A. Arnold publishes his master's thesis, titled A Proposal Of the Written System For ASL. In his thesis, Arnold describes a writing system for ASL. However, at present, no copy of his thesis is publicly available.
2009, United States
While studying ASL, the hearing student Thomas Stone publishes a blog in March, describing his writing system called ASL Sign Jotting
(ASLSJ). While this was initially a standalone website first set up in 2008, that content describing ASLSJ
was not added to his homepage until February 2013. This system is typed using several characters, including: lowercase and capital Latin alphabet characters, Arabic numbers, and punctuation marks.
2010s
2010, United States
While teaching at the California State University in Sacramento, CA, the deaf academic Dr. Donald Grushkin posts a series of four videos in which he describes a writing system for ASL that he calls SignScript.
The first video, posted in August, introduces this system. As Grushkin explains in this first video, SignScript
is adapted from the system created by Stokoe, Croneberg, and Casterline, as well as ASL-phabet
by Supalla and Blackburn. While the characters and symbols presented by Grushkin were designed on a computer, in use the system would be handwritten.
2010, United States
In Hollywood, CA, Robert Arnold publishes a book titled American Sign Language Writing: Learning How to Write in ASL in which he describes his writing system called si5s,
which he first introduced in his master's thesis. Arnold then sets up the si5s website two years later. While the characters and symbols presented by Arnold were designed on a computer, the system is expected to also be handwritten. Additional details can also be read in the si5s
Wikipedia article.
2011, United States
Deaf artists Adrean Clark and Julia Dameron published a website describing their writing system for ASL. Described as an open source
adaptation of si5s,
Clark and Dameron instead call their system ASLwrite.
While the ASLwrite website was taken down for updates at the beginning of 2019, a previous version is available on the Internet Archive website. While the characters and symbols presented by Clark and Dameron were designed on a computer, the system is expected to also be handwritten. Additional details can also be read in the ASLwrite
Wikipedia article.
2012, United States
In Burnsville, MN, Adrean Clark published a book titled How to Write American Sign Language. In her book, Clark provides an in-depth description of ASLwrite
.
2014, United States
An unidentified author published a blog on GitHub describing a writing system for ASL called ASLFont
. This system is typed from left to right, mapping unique characters onto the QWERTY keyboard layout. These characters include a series of pixel drawings of handshapes, as well as symbols for: palm orientations, body and spatial locations, directions
, locations of contact, circular motion
, use of the non-dominant hand, and nonmanual features. According to the author, Signs are written (as they are in both SignWriting and si5s) using the signer's perspective.
2014 United States
Now part of the ASLized! organization, Robert Arnold and deaf colleagues Elsie Richie and Suzanne Stecker published a new book about si5s,
titled The Official American Sign Language Writing Textbook. In April, ASLized! posted a video to their YouTube channel titled Learning Si5s, the written ASL system,
which serves as a trailer for this publication. While the characters and symbols presented by Arnold, Richie, and Stecker were designed on a computer, the system is expected to also be handwritten.
2015, United States
Cliff Jones, Jr., a hearing linguist, published a website describing his writing system for ASL, which he called RomaSign.
This system is typed using only the letters of the Latin alphabet, from left to right, in the following sequence: handshape, secondary handshape,
palm orientation, location, movement direction,
and movement type.
The hyphen can be used to type compounds and fingerspelling.
2016, United States
In Washington state, the hearing ASL/English interpreter Shelly Hansen published a website describing her writing system for ASL called Signotation.
She also published an accompanying book the same year, and a second book in 2017. This system is handwritten using a sign staff,
similar to what is used in music notation systems.
2017, United Kingdom
In England, the deaf software engineer Sandy Fleming published a website describing his writing system. This system is intended for writing all sign languages, which he calls Hippotext.
In this system, characters are typed from left to right, using the capital and lowercase letters of the Latin alphabet and Arabic numbers, as well as apostrophes, and single and double quotation marks.
2020s
2020, United States
From Portland, OR, Thomas Stone published an updated version of his writing system, ASL Sign Jotting
(ASLSJ), on the software development sharing platform GitHub.
2020, United States
In Maryland, Drs. Jacob A. Tosado and Carla D. Morris published a website called Journaled Knowledge describing their writing system for sign languages. Their system uses letters of the Latin alphabet, punctuation marks to construct a word. In this system, signed words are written from the signer's perspective, left to right. Please see our About page for more details.
2024, United States
The Sign Language Dictionary (SLD) website is published in December 2024.