Fingerspelling/Alphabet
There is an ASL sign for each letter of the alphabet. Fingerspelling, using the signed alphabet to spell words, is quite common. Fingerspelling is used to:
- spell people's names or other proper nouns, such as places or organization names that do not have a designated ASL sign
- spell words from spoken language that don't have a designated sign, such as slang or profession-specific jargon
- spell words that you do not know the ASL sign for
- some people prefer to fingerspell words that have ASL signs, there is nothing wrong with that, fingerspelling can be used as often as one would like
