The American Sign Language Phrase Book (42 page)

A good many languages will share some vocabulary when they come into contact with each other; ASL is one of them. Certain words have been borrowed from the English language and incorporated into the ASL lexicon through a process called
lexicalized fingerspelling
. When this process occurs, many of these fingerspelled words undergo a special transformation and end up looking like a single sign rather than a bunch of letters. In the phrase below, BUS is one example of a lexicalized fingerspelled sign.