By Jody H. Cripps and Samuel J. Supalla
A question to consider is: What has been done with the development of writing systems for
ASL? It was during the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries that Christopher Miller reported a
strong level of activity among individuals and groups in the development of ASL writing systems. One
of the authors of this article, Sam Supalla serves as a good example. He led an effort in creating an
ASL writing system known as the ASL-phabet. The number of graphemes for the ASL-phabet is 32.
The system’s phonological representation of ASL words includes the three parameters: Handshape,
Location, and Movement. Figure 1 includes an illustration of a person signing the word GIVE in ASL
and its written counterpart in the ASL-phabet.
Figure 1: GIVE and its written counterpart in the ASL-phabet
With the written word above, the first grapheme represents the handshape as used in the sign.
The second grapheme represents the location where the sign is produced (i.e., signing space in front
of the signer). The third and fourth graphemes represent how the movement is made in the sign (with a
accounting for how the sign moves away from the signer and d on the twisting movement of the
handshape).
The other writing systems developed for ASL are worthy of attention. There are two basic ASL
writing system types for consideration: 1) grapheme-based (as discussed for the ASL-phabet) and 2)
drawing-based. With the latter, signs are drawn in a highly stylized way. Jason Hopkins explained that
there is a sequentialization of drawings to depict a sign. The drawing-based type for ASL writing
characterizes SignWriting that was developed by Valerie Sutton in 1974 and Si5s developed by Robert
Augustus in 2013. In Figure 2, the ASL sign GIVE is, this time, created in the form of stylized drawings.
(Continue on the next page)
The Power of ASL
9
Winter 2018 – Issue 12