Manually Coded Languages (MCL) are representations of spoken languages in a gestural-visual form; that is, "sign language" versions of spoken langauges. They are not the natural languages of Deaf communities, although they often take signs ("lexicon") from the deaf sign language, adding specially-created signs (often using "initialisations"), and build them into a representation of the spoken langauge.
Manually Coded Langauges proliferated in the latter half of the 20th century, but precedents can be traced to the manual alphabets used in the middle ages in Europe, and the Abbé de l'Épée in 18th century France. They are often used in schools and by interpreters.
The use of MCLs is controversial, and is opposed by those who believe Deaf people should speak, lipread and use hearing aids rather than sign, as well as those who support the natural sign languages of the Deaf community over these cumbersome systems invented by hearing people.
Languages with manually coded forms
- Arabic: Arabic Sign Language
- English (see Manually Coded English)
- Signed English; several different systems use this name:
- Australasian Signed English
- British Signed English and Sign Supported Speech (SSS)
- American Signed English, Seeing Essential English (SEE1), Signing Exact English (SEE2), Linguistics of Visual English (LOVE) and Conceptually Accurate Signed English (CASE)
- Paget Gorman Signed Speech (PGSS) or Paget Gorman Systematic Sign Language
- Cued Speech
- The "Rochester Method" - fingerspelling everything.
- Signed English; several different systems use this name:
- Esperanto: Signuno
- Finnish
- French
- German: Lautsprachbegleitende(r) Gebärden, Lautbegleitende Gebärden (LBG). and "Phonembestimmes Manualsystem" (Phonemic Manual System).
- Indonesian: Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia (SIBI)
- Russian
- Spanish
- Swedish: Tecknad svenska, developed in the 1970s but now largely out of use.
See also
- Contact sign — A mixed language arising from contact between a spoken or manually coded language and a deaf sign language.
- Manual alphabet — a means of representing the written alphabet of a spoken language, but often a central part of natural sign languages.