SASL Newsletter - Fall 2018 Issue Issue 11 - Fall 2018 | Page 13

By Samuel J. Supalla
Citation
Padden, C., & Gunsauls, D. C. (2003). How the alphabet came to be used in a sign language. Sign
Language Studies, 4(1), 10-33.
Abstract
This historical account of the development of the manual alphabet in ASL (and of representational
systems in other sign languages) traces fingerspelling back to the monks of the seventh century, who
devised a system for representing speech without needing to speak. Many years later, in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, their manual alphabet underwent significant adaptations as a result of the
contact between the monks and the deaf children they tutored. This article describes the evolution of
the manual alphabet from that time to the present day.
(6 ¾ minutes long)
The Power of ASL
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Fall 2018 – Issue 11