Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

Signs for common names? My name is John, which, as you may guess, is a pretty common name. The benefit of having a common name growing up is that whenever I went into a gift shop that had items with names on them, such as cups, buttons, belts, or what-have-you, I could always find one with my name on it. In sign langage, unlike the items in the gift shop, there is no sign for John. That is, there is no ...

A few of us at Signing Savvy are big fans of the Amazing Race. As we watched the first episode two weeks ago, we were excited to see the first-ever deaf contestant to be on the show! As the Amazing Race participants travel the world, they often encounter language barriers. However, Luke, who has been deaf since birth, and his mother, Margie, felt they might have an advantage over other contestants since they have such ...

What is the difference between American Sign Language and other sign languages? Sign language has many different facets to it. American Sign Language (ASL) is the language created and used by the Deaf in the United States, Canada, parts of Mexico, and some other parts of the world. ASL has a limited amount of signs, but it is the purest language from the Deaf perspective. If you are using strict ASL and interpreting English, you often fingerspell words for ...

A little background In 2005 we realized that, while there were a few good sign language resources on the web, there really was no site that provided a comprehensive reference for those learning sign language. The closest sites out there were the ASL Browser developed at Michigan State University and Signing Online. I was actually involved in the development of both these sites. The ASL Browser was developed back in 1996-1997. At the time, the site was quite revolutionary. Digital video on ...