american manual alphabet

The American Manual Alphabet is an alphabet especially for the deaf in which the letters are represented by finger positions. 1 It is used to fingerspell a string of the alphabetical letters of a certain English or any spoken word, person's name, etc.. 2 Memorizing the American Sign Language alphabet is the first step when learning American Sign Language and most new sign language students rely on fingerspelling from the ASL alphabet. 3 Fingerspelling is the representation of the letters of a writing system, and sometimes numeral systems, using only the hands. 4 There are about forty manual alphabets around the world. 4