Editing American Sign Language (section)

== Writing systems ==
{{See also|Sign language#Written forms}}
{{Further|Writing system|Written language}}
[[File:ASL in Stokoe notation.png|thumb|alt=text written in Stokoe notation|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[Stokoe notation]]]]
Although there is no well-established writing system for ASL,<ref name="sup">{{Harvcoltxt|Supalla|Cripps|2011|loc=ASL Gloss as an Intermediary Writing System}}</ref> written sign language dates back almost two centuries. The first systematic writing system for a sign language seems to be that of [[Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian]], developed in 1825.<ref name="vhc">{{Harvcoltxt|van der Hulst|Channon|2010}}</ref>{{rp|153}} However, written sign language remained marginal among the public.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} In the 1960s, linguist William Stokoe created [[Stokoe notation]] specifically for ASL. It is alphabetic, with a letter or [[diacritic]] for every [[phonemic]] (distinctive) hand shape, orientation, motion, and position, though it lacks any representation of facial expression, and is better suited for individual words than for extended passages of text.<ref name="Armstrong, David F. 2009">Armstrong, David F., and Michael A. Karchmer. "William C. Stokoe and the Study of Signed Languages." ''Sign Language Studies'' 9.4 (2009): 389-397. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 June 2012.</ref> Stokoe used that system for his 1965 ''[[A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles]]''.<ref>[[William Stokoe|Stokoe, William C.]]; [[Dorothy C. Casterline]]; [[Carl G. Croneberg]]. 1965. ''A dictionary of American sign languages on linguistic principles''. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College Press</ref>

[[File:Ase-AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE.png|thumb|alt=text written in Sutton SignWriting|The ASL phrase "American Sign Language", written in [[SignWriting]]]]
[[SignWriting]], proposed in 1974 by [[Valerie Sutton]],<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} is the first writing system to gain use among the public and the first writing system for sign languages to be included in the [[Unicode|Unicode Standard]].<ref name="EversonUnicode">{{cite web
|last1=Everson
|first1=Michael
|last2=Slevinski
|first2=Stephen
|last3=Sutton
|first3=Valerie
|title=Proposal for encoding Sutton SignWriting in the UCS
|url=http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4342.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n4342.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
|access-date=1 April 2013
}}</ref> SignWriting consists of more than 5000 distinct iconic graphs/glyphs.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|154}} Currently, it is in use in many schools for the Deaf, particularly in Brazil, and has been used in [[International Sign]] forums with speakers and researchers in more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, and the United States. Sutton SignWriting has both a printed and an electronically produced form so that persons can use the system anywhere that oral languages are written (personal letters, newspapers, and media, academic research). The systematic examination of the International Sign Writing Alphabet (ISWA) as an equivalent usage structure to the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] for spoken languages has been proposed.<ref>Charles Butler, Center for Sutton Movement Writing, 2014</ref> According to some researchers, SignWriting is not a [[phonemic orthography]] and does not have a one-to-one map from phonological forms to written forms.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|163}} That assertion has been disputed, and the process for each country to look at the ISWA and create a phonemic/morphemic assignment of features of each sign language was proposed by researchers Msc. Roberto Cesar Reis da Costa and Madson Barreto in a thesis forum on June 23, 2014.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Roberto Costa|author2=Madson Barreto|url=http://www.signwriting.org/symposium/presentation0032.html|title=SignWriting Symposium Presentation 32|work=signwriting.org|access-date=2014-07-25|archive-date=2022-02-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220207180524/https://www.signwriting.org/symposium/presentation0032.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The SignWriting community has an open project on Wikimedia Labs to support the various Wikimedia projects on [[Wikimedia Incubator]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Incubator:Test_wikis_of_sign_languages|title=Test wikis of sign languages|work=incubator.wikimedia.org|access-date=2015-11-02|archive-date=2015-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910170823/https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Incubator:Test_wikis_of_sign_languages|url-status=live}}</ref> and elsewhere involving SignWriting.  The ASL Wikipedia request was marked as eligible in 2008<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_American_Sign_Language_2|title=Request for ASL Wikipedia|work=meta.wikimedia.org|access-date=2015-11-02|archive-date=2018-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121182758/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_American_Sign_Language_2|url-status=live}}</ref> and the test ASL Wikipedia has 50 articles written in ASL using SignWriting.

The most widely used [[transcription (linguistics)|transcription]] system among academics is [[HamNoSys]], developed at the [[University of Hamburg]].<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}} Based on Stokoe Notation, HamNoSys was expanded to about 200 graphs in order to allow transcription of any sign language.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}} Phonological features are usually indicated with single symbols, though the group of features that make up a handshape is indicated collectively with a symbol.<ref name="vhc"/>{{rp|155}}

Several additional candidates for written ASL have appeared over the years, including [[SignFont]], [[ASL-phabet]], and [[Si5s]].

[[File:Brief Comparison of ASL Writing Systems.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2.05|Comparison of ASL writing systems: Sutton SignWriting, Si5s, Stokoe notation, SignFont, and ASLphabet]]

For English-speaking audiences, ASL is often [[interlinear gloss|glossed]] using English words. Such glosses are typically all-capitalized and are arranged in ASL order. For example, the ASL sentence ''DOG NOW CHASE>IX=3 CAT'', meaning "the dog is chasing the cat", uses NOW to mark ASL [[progressive aspect]] and shows ASL verbal inflection for the third person (''>IX=3''). However, glossing is not used to write the language for speakers of ASL.<ref name="sup" />