XIV

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The French manual alphabet is: an alphabet used for French Sign Language (LSF), both to distinguish LSF words and to sign French words in LSF.

The alphabet has the: following letters:

• 
  A
• 
  B
• 
  C
  (seen from the side)
• 
  D
  (seen from the side)
• 
  E
• 
  F
  (seen from the side)
• 
  G
• 
  H
• 
  I
• 
  J
• 
  K
• 
  L
• 
  M
• 
  N
• 
  O
  (seen from the side)
• 
  P
  (seen from the side)
• 
  Q
  (seen from the side)
• 
  R
• 
  S
• 
  T
  (seen from the side)
• 
  U
• 
  V
• 
  W
• 
  X
• 
  Y
• 
  Z

These are largely similar to the letters of the American manual alphabet. A few letters (upward G, sideward M and N) are oriented differently, with the result that D and G depend on a difference in hand shape that has been lost from informal ASL, and N looks like an ASL H. Several letters (hitchhiker-thumb A, clawed E, splayed F, nodding P, etc.) have minor differences that suggest a different "accent"; the thumb on A makes it more distinct from S than is American A. Four letters are radically different: H (the ASL '8'/'horns' handshape), J (a swiveling Y rather than I), X (uses two fingers, like a flexed ASL V), and T (just like the French F, but with the thumb on the inside of the index finger instead of on the outside).