In the second lesson of this course, I learned about the applications of fingerspelling and the ASL alphabet. Fingerspelling is used to spell out words, specifically proper nouns, that do not have signs. There are no signs for people’s names, so I would fingerspell “Olivia” in conversation. Brand names, such as “Nike” or “Patagonia”, also do not have signs and would have to be spelled out. Another use for fingerspelling is asking what the sign is for a certain word. A chart of the signs for letters of the alphabet can be found at the bottom of the page.
When fingerspelling double letters, such as in words like “book” or “manatee”, there are certain rules to follow depending on whether the letter is a contact or open-handed letter. The contact letters are a, e, m, n, o, s, and t because your fist and fingers touch one another; they are signed twice when they appear together in a word. The open-handed letters are b, c, d, f, g, h, i, k, l, p, q, r, u, v, w, x, and y because your fingers are up and your hand is somewhat outstretched; these are signed with a lateral sliding movement in the direction of your dominant side. The letter z is signed with your index and middle fingers instead of just the index finger. When double letters appear at the beginning or end of a word, they are signed away from you, regardless of your dominant hand.
