How To Write a Sign Language, Part 2: Projectional Systems
How To Write a Sign Language
Part 2: Projectional Systems
- Sign Language Dictionary - Writing History
- The Hunt for The Perfect Sign Language Writing System (© 2025 Zrajm)
Last post in this series I talked about logographies. This post I will talk about Projectional Systems.
Projectional Systems
The concept of projectional systems is deliciously simple. How should we write sign languages? Why not just draw the hands! As such projectional systems use both simplified drawings of the hands and body, as well as relative positions of said glyphs to create a sign.
This opens up both great opportunities and major problems.
Sign languages are 3D languages. They use space and directions in their vocabulary and grammar. Projectional systems use the 2D space on the page to mimic that 3D spatial / directional grammar.
For instance verbs (like ATTACK) change direction depending on who did what to who; I-ATTACK-YOU will travel from me to you, whereas YOU-ATTACK-ME will travel towards myself.
images sketched with paint
Sign languages are also visual languages and use iconicity - where signs look like what they mean. In the previous part I discussed how logographies can use this iconicity for their glyphs. Instead projectional writing systems directly depict what the hands are doing, which often capture that same iconicity that is present in the signs.
Image adapted from: ASL: 3D Object by Garrett Bose in Sutton SignWriting
But they are unique amongst world languages. No spoken language writing system works this way. And the fact that they are novel poses issues, as there is no precedent for what such a system would look like if codified nor digitised.
What does accurate spelling look like if you can use glyphs in any combination, orientation and position on the page?
How do you even encode such a system for writing digitally?
The two big examples of Projectional writing systems are Sutton Signwriting and the Si5S-SLwrite family of systems.
Sutton Signwriting
Sutton Signwriting (most often shortened to Signwriting) was developed by Valerie Sutton out of her previous work, Dancewriting, at the request of the University of Copehagen in 1974. As a system it shows signs directly using simplified drawings of the hands, body, face and arrows. It uses shading to indicate some information such as orientation, which is very rare amongst world languages.
Image Source: SignWriting - Wikipedia
Image Source: Sutton SignWriting - Omniglot
Sutton Signwriting found early success back when it was first developed but didn't manage to maintain this momentum in most of the world. It has been adapted to most global sign languages and has found niche use over time. The largest body of use is in Brazil, where it has been adapted by Deaf education and academia. There is a dissertation written and numerous children's books written in LIBRAS using Sutton Signwriting.
Jack and Jill in Sutton Signwriting
Image Source: 2. Sutton SignWriting Notation(SSW) for the nursery rhyme, "Jack and... | Download Scientific Diagram
There has been significant work creating materials for Sutton Signwriting, adapting it to sign languages around the globe as well as making it more digitally compatible. I will talk more about digitisation below.
Image Source: Sutton SignWriting - Omniglot
Review
Positive: Sutton Signwriting is easy to read individual signs, and even has some longer texts in it. It also undoubtedly occupies a historic place in the development of sign language writing. It is many people's first introduction and intuitively demonstrates yes... maybe this is possible.
Negative: However it is hard to write both on paper (because it requires shading) and digitally (because it requires positioning). I for one believe it would be perfect for a dictionary, perhaps an equivalent to the International Phonetic Alphabet, as it can show how signs are produced. But I am hesitant to adopt it as an every-day writing system.
Si5S-SLwrite
(Si5S, ASLwrite, LSQescrite, etc)
The Si5S-SLwrite family has a somewhat storied history. They are similar to Sutton Signwriting in that they use simplified depictions of hands, bodies and movements - but they simplify them even further for ease of writing.
Si5S was initially made by Robert Arnold in a thesis. It was made somewhat as a response to Sutton Signwriting, but with many efficiencies. It even includes some logograms, which are used as a form of shortcut.
Si5S
Image Source: arnold_augustus+ritchie+stecker-2013-official_asl_writing_textbook.pdf
However Si5S, or perhaps more accurately the material used to spread and learn it, was the copyright of Arnold, which was disliked by some learners. Thus they, namely Adrean Clark, made a breakaway open source project named ASLwrite. It took most of the base concepts making it completely free to access. Many of the complications of Si5S were cut down: handshape forms were further simplified and the logograms were cut down.
From there ASLwrite has been adapted to other languages. This includes BSLwrite and écritureLSQ. Overall these are sometimes referred to as "SLwrite". Additionally Si5S has been adapted to Japanese Sign Language (nihon-shuwa).
Style wise the entire SLwrite family follows a line-and-dot approach. It avoids standard arrows and shading, which ends up making it easier to write and look more like writing systems of spoken languages.
There have been a number of books teaching both Si5S and ASLwrite - along with a simplified sheet that teaches how to write ASLwrite and a font to write ASLwrite digitally. I will discuss digital compatibility more below.
Review
Positive: I find ASLwrite in particular to be easy to write by hand. It is my go to when I want to sketch a sign for someone else or jot down a quick note in sign language (except where I now use Icoglyphs).
Negative: It is, however, an absolute bastard to write digitally. Even with the font it isn't quite there yet. With a little more work it could perhaps work.
Other Examples
Although the above two are the poster children for projectional systems, others exist also. Two separate systems named "Visografia" and "Visagrafía" exist and are projectional.
Visografia
Digital Compatibility
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