• 21
  • Feb, 07

ASL->English dictionaries?

  • By browneyedgirl65
  •     in ASL
  •        

Hi, all. I was thinking, there must be dictionaries that are ASL->English, that is, that let you look up the English meaning of a sign. There’s plenty that are the other way to look up the ASL sign for an English word. But half the time I spot a new sign I want to look it up and can’t, unless I happen to be able to figure it out with captions, transcripts, or occasionally context…

5 Responses

  1. Anonymous #1   06 Apr, 2007 - 12:00 pm

    You might want to play around with the ASL handshape dictionary. It’s a book that is structured so you can look up signs by handshape to get their English equivalents, instead of by English gloss word.

    http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/0432.html

    Seems there are some related products, like a DVD version, flash cards, etc., based on the ASL handshape dictionary. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/americansignlanguage.html

    Enjoy!

  2. jcortese   06 Apr, 2007 - 12:00 pm

    *scatters rose petals at your feet*

    THANK YOU!

  3. Anonymous #1   06 Apr, 2007 - 12:01 pm

    Heehee, you’re welcome.

    As i recall the ASL Handshape Dictionary has many entries, but is not super-thick like a good, jam-packed dictionary should be.

    There may be other ASL-to-English dictionary projects out there. Anyone know?

  4. browneyedgirl65   06 Apr, 2007 - 12:03 pm

    OK, with the magic keyword “handshape”, I googled up the following:

    The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary
    which appears to be the same book, but at Amazon (a little easier for me to purchase, unless the profit would be better used at G.?)

    The American Sign Language Handshape Starter
    this appears to be a companion, starter, book to the above…

    The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary DVD
    and this is a companion DVD to the original book.

    I’m not finding any other handshape based ASL dictionary though. Very interesting!

  5. Anonymous #2   06 Apr, 2007 - 12:04 pm

    There’s a growing set of dictionaries at http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle which are pretty interesting.

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