finger alphabet

In the Middle Ages monks in their enforced silence often resorted to a finger alphabet.

From The Deaf Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their Education in the United States by Best, Harry

The Abbe Deschamps, a rival of De l'Epee, made use of a finger alphabet in teaching the deaf to speak, which was not adapted to rapid use.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 by Various

This position of the fingers is that for the letter N in the finger alphabet, the initial for the word non.

From Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-1880, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 263-552 by Mallery, Garrick

I then said to her with the finger alphabet, "wind fast," or "wind slow," holding her hands and showing her how to do as I wished.

From The Story of my life; with her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Macy, John Albert

Frau Grote, my German teacher, and Mr. Gilman, the principal, were the only teachers in the school who learned the finger alphabet to give me instruction.

From The Story of my life; with her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy by Macy, John Albert