Fingerspelling is the use of the manual alphabet [PHONOLOGY 1.1.3] to represent a word from spoken language. The fingerspelling can be used in five different ways:
- One-by-one fingerspelling. It refers to the spelling of the orthographic representation of a word, sequence or letter from spoken language. Generally, it happens with proper nouns or with concepts that do not have a sign counterpart. For instance, as shown in the example (a) the proper name Jordina is signed with the corresponding letters of teh LSC manual alphabet.
j-o-r-d-i-n-a (‘Jordina’)
2. Initialization. It consists in the integration as a handshape of the first or last letter of the written word corresponding to the sign [LEXICON 2.2.2.1], such as in the above examples (a) and (b). Example (a) illustrates the integration of the handshape L(C) in the sign mushroom, to refer to the sign lichen. Example (b) shows the integration of the handshape and movement of the letter Z(P) to refer to the last letter of the written word feliz.
a) lichen (‘lichen’)
b) happy (‘happy’)
- Single manual letter signs. The handshape of the first letter of the written word is used for referring to a concept. Sometimes, a repetition of the movement is found. For instance, as shown in (g), v has a repeated movement to denote ‘widow’.
- Multiple-letter signs. It refers to the use of more than one letter from the spoken language. In LSC we can find it in proper surnames, as they have phonological assimilation/integration, like the fingerspelling of for the surname. With very common family names like Martínez, López, Suárez the sequence of letters is abbreviated and only the first letters and the final one are fingerspelled. It is important to note that when these abbreviations are used the mouthing articulates the complete name.
a) m-a-z (‘Martinez’)
b) s-a-z (‘Sánchez’)
- Fingerspelling after or before a sign. Sometimes the fingerspelling is used before or after a sign. For instance, in example (h) ‘traction avant’ is signed after its fingerspelling, t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n a-v-a-n-t.
t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n a-v-a-n-t cl(B): ‘the wheels moving forward’ (‘traction avant’)
(extracted from the corpus created in Villaécija, 2019)
Some of the structures above can be found as local or contextual lexicalizations. That is to say, the fingerspelling can be used for specific communicative reasons, but it is not always lexicalized.