Manual Sign

Synonyms

American Sign Language (ASL); Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE); Linguistics of Verbal English (LOVE); Manually Coded English (MCE); Seeing Essential English (SEE I); Sign language; Signed English; Signing Exact English (SEE II)

Definition

Manual sign is a system of communicating visually and spatially through signs created with the hands. The term “manual sign” does not specify a particular sign system such as American Sign Language (ASL) or manual codes of English such as Seeing Essential English (SEE I), Signing Exact English (SEE II), Linguistics of Verbal English (LOVE), and Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE). ASL is the natural language of the deaf community in the United States and much of Canada (Neidel et al. 2000). ASL is a distinct language from spoken English (see entry on “American Sign Language (ASL)”) while manual codes of English are based on spoken English and are an attempt to represent English on the hands. Manual codes of English were...