手語拼寫法(英語:Fingerspelling or Manual alphabet,簡稱:手拼法,又稱:指拼法或指拼手語或手語字母),是一種在文字中字母的表達模式,有時還會出現記數系統,但是僅僅用的是雙手。而這些由手表達出來的字母經常被用在聾人教育(英語:Deaf education),後來被採納為手語獨特的一部分,全世界大約有40種手語拼寫字母的版本[1],從歷史的觀點來看,手語拼寫法還有更多的用途,包含了使用密碼、記憶術以及無聲的宗教設置。
就此同時,在英國也出現手語字母的使用目的,像是保密通信[11]、公開講話、對於聾人的溝通使用[12]。1648年,約翰·布爾沃描述著「雇主巴賓頓」,雖是一名聾人,但是平時訓練自己的手語拼寫法,也就是說「透過靈活的手指關節來做出動作」,既使在自己人生的黑暗中,透過該方法,能夠與他的妻子互相溝通[13]。1680年,喬治·達爾加諾所出版的《Didascalocophus, or, The deaf and dumb mans tutor》,書中提出作者自己對於聾人教育的看法,當然也包括「關節的」字母,其中每一個字母指向手指或者手掌的關節位置各有不同來表示字母的含意,聽其他的聾人說使用關節的系統已有一段時間;根據一些人猜測他們可以追溯到早期甘文維的手語字母[14][15]。這些字母的母音已倖存於英國、澳洲、紐西蘭手語所用的當代風格之字母。現今所使用雙手比出字母的聲母,早就出現在1968年的印刷圖像《手指類語言》,也就是在一位連一句話都說不出來的匿名作者的一本小冊子中[16]。為了要保持沈默、保密或者是純粹娛樂,他也建議過手語字母可以在靜音的環境下使用,其九封可以追溯到更早字母的信件,加上另外17封包含現代雙手比出字母的信件被發現,進而促成了現在26個手語字母。
Alföldi-Rosenbaum, E. (1971). The finger calculus in antiquity and in the Middle Ages: Studies on Roman game counters part I. Friihmiltelalterliche Studien, 6, 1-9. See also: Menninger, K. (1958). Number words and number symbols: A cultural history of numbers. Translated by Paul Broneer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969. (p. 201). Originally published as Zahlwort und Ziffer (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht).
Bede. (AD 710). De Computo vel Loguela per Gestum Digitorum ("Of counting or speaking with the fingers"), preface to De temporum ratione ("On the reckoning of time"). Illustrated in AD 1140, National Library, Madrid.
Bragg, Lois (1997). Visual-Kinetic Communication in Europe Before 1600: A Survey of Sign Lexicons and Finger Alphabets Prior to the Rise of Deaf Education. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2:1 Winter 1997
Juan Pablo Bonet (1620). Reducción de las letras y Arte para enseñar á hablar los Mudos ("The Adaptation of Letters and Art of Teaching Mutes to Speak"). Published by Francisco Abarca de Angulo, Madrid.
Wilkins, John (1641). Mercury, the Swift and Silent Messenger. The book is a work on cryptography, and fingerspelling was referred to as one method of "secret discoursing, by signes and gestures". Wilkins gave an example of such a system: "Let the tops of the fingers signifie the five vowels; the middle parts, the first five consonants; the bottomes of them, the five next consonants; the spaces betwixt the fingers the foure next. One finger laid on the side of the hand may signifie T. Two fingers V the consonant; Three W. The little finger crossed X. The wrist Y. The middle of the hand Z." (1641:116-117)
John Bulwer's "Chirologia: or the natural language of the hand.", published in 1644, London, mentions that alphabets are in use by Deaf people, although Bulwer presents a different system which is focused on public speaking.
Moser H.M., O'Neill J.J., Oyer H.J., Wolfe S.M., Abernathy E.A., and Schowe, B.M. "Historical Aspects of Manual Communication" Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders25 (1960) 145-151.
and Hay, A. and Lee, R. A Pictorial History of the evolution of the British Manual Alphabet (British Deaf History Society Publications: Middlsex, 2004)
Charles de La Fin (1692). Sermo mirabilis, or, The silent language whereby one may learn ... how to impart his mind to his friend, in any language ... being a wonderful art kept secret for several ages in Padua, and now published only to the wise and prudent ... London, Printed for Tho. Salusbury... and sold by Randal Taylor... 1692. OCLC 27245872