Various attempts to develop a signed mode of the English language have been developed for use in deaf education. They usually take a core of lexical signs from the local deaf sign language, in addition to inventing new signs especially for grammatical concepts, and incorporating some form of spelling. Unlike natural sign languages, Signed English uses the same grammar as English.
The use of Signed English is controversial. Many Deaf people complain that it is awkward and difficult to sign, and that it is an attempt to replace their own native sign languages. However it is advocated by some educators as a way of providing deaf children with access to a visual form of the English language.
Manually Coded English is a generic descriptive term for a variety of visual communication methods expressed through the hands which attempt to represent the English language.
It is not a language; it is a manually coded form of English that uses ASL signs supplemented with special signs or inflections that allow English to be signed exactly as it is spoken.
Bornsteins basic rules are: sign either a word alone or a sign word and one sign marker; fingerspell words not provided in the dictionary; and create plurals by repeating the signs for nouns.
A visual sign taken from a deafsign language may be generalised to represent homonyms of the English word - for example, the Auslan sign for a 'fly' (insect) may be used in SignedEnglish for the verb (to) 'fly'.
SignedEnglish tends to be slower than spoken English, and teachers using it have usually found themselves 'cutting corners' and reverting to a kind of pidgin sign (see Pidgin SignEnglish).
Signs are borrowed from the local deafsign language and/or are artificial signs invented by educators of the deaf.
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