ASL part 2---Language part 2

On the subject of words, there is the indispensable art of fingerspelling. Essential to ASL, and easy to learn, one thing never to get wrong is that clarity is better than speed. Fingerspelling is indispensable because if a word is not know it can be fingerspelled, thus enabling the conversation to move on smoothly. Some fingerspelled words are, over time, made into signed words. For instance, the word job was originally fingerspelled j-o-b. Over time it has become so fluid that the o is almost omitted as the hand slides along. It is now called a “lone sign,” which is when a fingerspelled word is considered a sign because it is fingerspelled so smoothly.
Not only is there fingerspelling, but there is also lip-reading. Many Deaf people are somewhat skilled at this tactic to understand a non-signing hearing person. Keep in mind however; holding a hand in front of the face or signing in the semi darkness will drastically reduce the ability for the other person to understand anything. Also, any kind of facial hair will cause a problem—trying to lip-read a person with a moustache in almost like listening to half a conversation as it obscures the orifice.
Fingerspelling itself was often made “illegal” in the past. There were two main ways to teach deaf people back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The combined method was constantly changing but started with signing being forbidden and fingerspelling supplementing speech. In other cases only speech was used but sign was allowed outside of school, and then there was speech used in class, and sign was “reserved” for the adults who never went to school to learn speech, the “oral failures.”