Hamburg Notation System

The Hamburg Sign Language Notation System, or HamNoSys, is a transcription system for all sign languages, not only for ASL, with a direct correspondence between symbols and gesture aspects, such as hand location, shape and movement.[1] It was developed in 1985 at the University of Hamburg, Germany. As of 2020, it is in its fourth revision.

HamNo Sys does not identify with any specific national diversified fingerspelling system, therefore it can be applied on an international level. With this, it exceeds the Stokoe system in terms of structure and use.

Unlike SignWriting and the Stokoe notation, it is not intended as a practical writing system. It's more like the International Phonetic Alphabet in that regard. Both systems are meant for use by linguistics, and include detail such as allophones that are not relevant to those actually using the language.

The HamNoSys is not encoded in Unicode. Computer processing is made possible by a HamNoSysUnicode.ttf font, which uses Private Use Area characters.