Stokoe notation
Stokoe notation is the first phonemic script used for sign languages. It was created by William Stokoe for American Sign Language, with Latin letters and numerals used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to transcribe the position, movement, and orientation of the hands. It was first published as the organizing principle of Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf, and later also used in A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, by Stokoe et al.. In the 1965 dictionary, signs are themselves arranged alphabetically, according to their Stokoe transcription, rather than being ordered by their English glosses as in other sign-language dictionaries. This made it the only ASL dictionary where the reader could look up a sign without first knowing how to translate it into English. The Stokoe notation was later adapted to British Sign Language in Kyle et al. and to Australian Aboriginal sign languages in Kendon. In each case the researchers modified the alphabet to accommodate phonemes not found in ASL.
The Stokoe notation is mostly restricted to linguists and academics. The notation is arranged linearly on the page and can be written with a typewriter that has the proper font installed. Unlike SignWriting or the Hamburg Notation System, it is based on the Latin alphabet and is phonemic, being restricted to the symbols needed to meet the requirements of ASL rather than accommodating all possible signs. For example, there is a single symbol for circling movement, regardless of whether the plane of the movement is horizontal or vertical.
Writing direction
Stokoe notation is written horizontally left to right like the Latin alphabet. This contrasts with SignWriting, which is written vertically from top to bottom.Symbol usage
Stokoe coined the terms tab, dez, and sig. These are used to categorize features of sign-language phonemes, somewhat like the distinction between consonant, vowel, and tone is used in the description of oral languages. A sign is written in the order tab-dez-sig: TDs. Compound signs are separated with a double dashed pipe, approximately TDs¦¦TDs.A serious deficiency of the system is that it does not provide for facial expression, mouthing, eye gaze, and body posture, as Stokoe had not worked out their phonemics in ASL. Verbal inflection and non-lexical movement is awkward to notate, and more recent analyses such as those of Ted Supalla have contradicted Stokoe's set of motion phonemes. There is also no provision for representing the relationship between signs in their natural context, which restricts the usefulness of the notation to the lexical or dictionary level. Nonetheless, Stokoe demonstrated for the first time that a sign language can be written phonemically just like any other language.
In the tables below, the first column is a web-based approximation of the Stokoe symbol using the inventory available in Unicode, and the second is an ASCII substitution for the purpose of citing examples in this article. Proper display of the third column requires the Stokoe font available at the external link below; without that font, you will see the corresponding ASCII character, as used in Mandel.
''Tab'' (Location)
The tab symbols are a null sign for a neutral location and iconic symbols for parts of the head, arm, and torso. In addition, the dez symbols below may be used to indicate that the location is the passive hand in a specific shape.| Unicode approximation | ASCII approximation | Stokoe** | Description |
| Ø | 0 | 0 | neutral location |
| ⩇ | Q | h | face, or whole head |
| ∩ | P | u | forehead, brow, or upper face |
| ⊔ | T | m | eyes, nose, or mid face |
| ∪ | U | l | lips, chin, or lower face |
| - | - | - |
''Dez'' (Handshape)
The symbols for handshapes are taken from the ASL manual alphabet: represents a fist, the handshape used for fingerspelling "A" ; represents a flat hand, the handshape used for fingerspelling "B" and "4", etc. When a dez involves two hands, two letters are used.Dez symbols may also be used as tabs. For example, represents a flat hand, B, located at the face, Q, and
Besides the shape of the hands, the dez includes their orientation. This is indicated, when necessary, with subscripts, which are introduced in the next section.
| A | fist |
| B | flat hand |
| 5 | spread hand |
| C | cupped hand |
| E | claw hand |
| F | okay hand |
| G | pointing hand |
| H | index + middle fingers together |
| I | pinkie |
| K | thumb touches middle finger of V |
| L | angle hand, thumb + index |
| 3 | vehicle classifier hand, thumb + index + middle fingers |
| O | tapered hand, fingers curved to touch thumbtip |
| R | crossed fingers |
| V | spread index + middle fingers |
| W | thumb touches pinkie |
| X | hook |
| Y | horns |
| 8 | bent middle finger; may touch thumb |
There are three diacritics that modify the shape of the dez. A dot placed above it shows that a finger not normally seen is prominent, usually because it is involved in the production of the sign. For example, is a fist with the thumb extended, as in . Three dots or ticks over a letter shows the fingers are flexed, so that is a flexed flat hand, and is two flexed fingers. The forearm tab sign prefixed to the dez shows that the forearms are prominent in the production of the sign, as in .
''Sig'' (movement) and ''dez'' orientation
The movement of the hand, or sig, is written with superscripted letters after the dez, as D#. Multiple movement sigs are arranged linearly when the movements are sequential, as in TD×∨×,1 but stacked one above the other when signed simultaneously, as in TD×ͮ.2A dot placed above the sig indicates that the motion is sharp, as in TD×̇,3 while a dot placed after the sig indicates that the motion is repeated, as in TD×·.
A tilde with a two-hand dez, TDDs~, indicates that first one hand performs the sig, then the other. Without the tilde, both hands are understood to act together.
A subset of the sig symbols used for motion are also used to indicate the orientation of the hand. In this use they are subscripted after the dez instead of superscripted, as in D#.4 Stokoe analyzed the orientation of the hand as part of the tab, the handshape.
Several linguists, including, Kyle & Woll, state that Stokoe's tab conflates two parameters, handshape and orientation, and split off ori as a fourth parameter. Kendon, however, notes how this greatly complicates the phonological description of signs, and prefers to retain orientation as an aspect of the handshape, with changes of orientation analysed as other changes in the hands, rather than as changes in an independent parameter.
Relative location
When the tab is a hand shape, or the dez consists of two hands, a symbol may be placed between the two letters to indicate their relative position. These include a few of the movement/orientation letters above. In addition, there are symbols to indicate position above, below, next to, and behind: the underscore on the B in shows that the L hand is placed under a B hand, with or without contact, etc.| Unicode | ASCII* | Description |
| B̲ A | B A | A under B |
| B̅ A | A | A over B |
| B | B next to B | |
| A⌕A | A\A | A behind A |
| B‡B | B+B | B hands or forearms cross |
| F≬F | F$F | F hands clasped or linked |
| 5ʘG | 5oG | G hand within 5 hand |
Example
This is the ASL word in Stokoe notation:The first letter, ᴗ, shows that the word is signed at the lower face. The second, V⃛ɒ, shows that the hand has the shape of a fingerspelled "V". The V has two diacritics: the three dots ... above it show that the fingers are bent, while the subscript shows that the hand is held with the back of the hand facing up. The last letters, @
⊥, are a compound sig: the spiral shows a circular motion, and the tack underneath shows that the motion proceeds outward. This is a mimetic sign for 'snake', mimicking the motion of a fanged snake. It is alphabetized under to the tab U, then by the dez V, then by the sig @; the searcher does not need to know what it means or that it is glossed with the English word in order to look it up.
Following is a passage from Goldilocks:
| BɑBɑz~ | √V⃛√V⃛ ɑ̇• | Ʒ⊥ | √C‡√Cv ו | ȜY@ v | √Gʌ |
| ɑ√Bʌω | G⊥ | BʌˡBʌ÷ v | ⱰȦ | BɒBɒ⊥ |
| G> | ᴖ5× | √C‡√Cv ו | X⊥X⊥÷ ɑ | B⊤Vɒv• | ɑL#• | X⊥X⊥÷ ɑ |