Online sign language (ASL) dictionary

marcus

http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htm

this is a dictionary going from English to Sign (American Sign Language: ASL)

A lot of the entries have a brief (one or two second) video of the guy making the sign.

The guy is an expert signer. ASL teaching materials seems to be his commerical business, but the dictionary is free. It is a work in progress so some of the words are still in the form of static diagrams with arrows to show the motion. Or they are in the form of a series of 2 to 4 still photographs of the guy in progressive stages of making the sign.

But these static versions are being replaced by the brief video versions!

It's pretty nice. ASL is not like "finger-spelling" which is based on English words. It is a separate language---each idea or concept has its own hand-sign.