Tips on writing sign language

Disclaimers: while I have been learning ASL (American Sign Language, I am not yet fluent. Also, I am not deaf. Both of these things being said, I have been learning ASL for nearly a year and I’ve been doing independant research about the language itself and the Deaf community. What I’ve listed below are things that I have learned from my own personal experience signing, what I’ve learned in my ASL class, and what I’ve learned from my independant research.

1) When you write signed dialogue, use quotation marks and everything else you would use for any other type of dialogue. Yes, I know they didn’t do that in the Magnus Chase series, but many Deaf readers were made uncomfortable at the choice to depict sign language as not speech. Establish early on that the character signs and then use tags such as “xe signed,” or “hir motions were snappy with irritation.”

2) Without facial expressions, someone’s signs are going to be almost meaningless. All of the grammar is in the face, as are some descriptors. For example, if you can’t see a character’s face, and you’re only looking at their hands, the signs would be the same for the statement “Xe doesn’t have dogs.” and the question “Does xe have dogs?” 

3) There is no such thing as fluent lipreading. The best lipreaders in the world can only understand about 70% of what’s being said, and factors such as darkness, the presence of mustaches, lack of context, and a bunch of other common things can easily lower that ability. If someone’s lipreading, they’re taking little pieces of what they can lipread, and stitching together context and other details to get a general picture of what’s going on, but there’s still always going to be holes.

4) If you’re writing a character who can’t hear, know the difference between deaf (lowercase d) and Deaf (uppercase D). The medical term for not being able to hear anything is deaf. People who use their deafness as part of their identity are referred to, and refer to themselves as Deaf. They are part of the Deaf community.

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5) Sign language is not universal. For example, ASL and BSL (British Sign Language) are two very different languages. If two Deaf characters who use different sign languages meet, they will not be able to understand eachother at first in the same way that someone who speaks only English and someone who speaks only Spanish will not be able to understand eachother at first. The characters may be able to form a sort of pidgen based off of both their sign languages to communicate, but it will be rudimentary and will take time. Also, if someone knows two differnt sign languages, then they are just as bilingual as someone who knows two spoken languages.

6) Sign languages are based on concept rather stringing words together, making context important. This means that if you take a random handshape out of context, it likely won’t have  a single meaning. For example, in ASL the handshape for the letter F (made with the index finger and thumb in a circle and other fingers splayed - like the okay sign) is the exact same handshape as the number 9. If a character walks into a signed conversation, it will take them a little while to figure out what’s going on.

7) Sign languages are blunt - blunter than spoken languages. This is because they’re based on concept and because of that you have to get right to the point or you’ll confuse the hell out of whoever you’re talking to. Because of this, bluntness is not considered rude in the same way it is in English, for example.

8) Not all deaf people use sign language. Many do, but it’s not a requirement by any means. This means that if you’re writing a character who’s deaf and doesn’t use sign language, they might get a bit offended or uncomfortable if another character immediately assumes that they use sign language. Also, just because you establish a character as being deaf doesn’t mean you’ve automatically established that they use/will understand sign language, and vice versa.

I hope these tips are helpful. If I’ve gotten any of them wrong, please let me know, and also feel free to reblog and add more :)