About ASL Gloss

We will begin to practice signing cohesive sentences this week. This will require you to have a basic understanding of ASL gloss. 

'Glossing' is a way of writing a language in another language. ASL gloss is not the written form of American Sign Language, it is not a language at all. It is a just way of representing or transcribing a language.

Sign Language is a rich language that is visual, gestural, and spacial. No written form of ASL has been accepted by the deaf community. Glossing is a tool we will use in this class to help learn ASL.

Here is a great source that goes into detail about glossing ASL: http://lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/gloss.htm

For this class, here are the basics you need to know:

• A capitalized word in gloss represents a sigle sign in ASL
• ex/ DEAF, GOOD
• Two or more words joined together by a hyphen is a single sign in ASL
• ex/ DONT-KNOW, PUT-DOWN
• Words with letters joined together with hyphens represent fingerspelled words or abbreviations
• ex/ J-U-L-I-E, A-P-T

Also: (Pronouns and Possessive Pronouns)

• IX=1 means I, me
• IX=2 means you
• IX=3 means they, he, she

• POS=1 means my, mine
• POS=2 means your, yours
• POS=3 means their, theirs

Here are some examples of glossed sentences:

• Is she a teacher?
• IX=3 TEACHER IX=3?

• What is your name?
• POS=2 NAME WHAT?

• John is tall.
• J-O-H-N IX=3, IX=3 TALL. (or) J-O-H-N IX=3 TALL IX=3.

This is all you need to know for now. You will learn to gloss ASL in English next year in ASL II!

***Extra Credit:

Using the above information and the link I provided you, try glossing the following sentences:

1. My name is Carol.
2. I am a student here.
3. Where can I study?

For up to 6 points extra credit, email me your gloss transcription by Tuesday before class.