The following are excerpts from "Princípios Básicos da EliS: Escrita das Línguas de Sinais" by Mariângela Estelita Barros and "Um texto escrito em Libras/ELiS: O sistema de escrita das línguas de sinais (ELiS) como recurso para registrar enunciados sinalizados" by Freitas, Barros, and Fernandes. Translation by Nuno Raposo.
The font used on this page has been slightly modified from the original font found here to allow for the rendering of diacritics directly by the font.
The modified font can be found here here, and a Keyman Keyboard can be found here
You can find a cheatsheet made by Nel Fie here to use as a typing guide for the ELiS font
You can experiment with an online version of they keyboard here
The ELiS writing system is is composed of 95 visographemes, which are organized in four groups, which form its basic structure: Handshape (HS), with 10 visographems; Palm Orientation (PO), with 6 visographemes; Location (LOC), with 35 visographemes; and Movement (M), with 44 visographemes.
The finger notations represent the positions of the fingers and are combined to form a handshape.
They are as follows:
| Handshape | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Thumb | Fingers | ||
| q | closed | q | closed |
| w | in palm | u | hooked |
| e | curved | o | curved |
| r | "3D" | s | bent |
| t | horizontal | g | straight |
| y | vertical | ||
The visiographemes for Palm Orientation indicate the direction the palm is facing.
They are as follows:
| Palm Orientation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| l | forward | ||
| ç | backward | ||
| c | up | ||
| v | down | ||
| z | medial | ||
| x | distal | ||
The visiographemes for Location represent the location where the sign is produced. They are organized in the subgroups: Head, Body, Limb, Hand.
| Location | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Body | Limb | Hand | ||||
| Q | face | H | neck | \ | whole arm | @ | palm |
| W | top of head | J | body | Z | shoulder | # | back |
| E | side of head | K | thorax | X | armpit | $ | fingers |
| R | ear | L | side | C | upper arm | % | side of fingers |
| T | forehead | Ç | abdomen | V | elbow | & | in between fingers |
| Y | eyebrow | B | forearm | * | phalanges | ||
| U | eye | N | wrist | _ | fingertip | ||
| I | cheekbone | M | leg | ||||
| O | nose | ||||||
| P | upper lip | ||||||
| A | mouth | ||||||
| S | teeth | ||||||
| D | cheek | ||||||
| F | chin | ||||||
| G | below chin | ||||||
The visiographemes for Movement represent movements performed by the arms and hands, and include some non-manual expressions.
| Movement | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arm and wrist | Hand | Non-Manual Expressions | |||
| à | forward | û | open | Í | negative head shake |
| á | backward | ü | close | Î | positive head shake |
| â | forward and backward | À | open and close | Ï | tongue in cheek |
| ã | up | Á | flex fingers at base | Ò | tongue out |
| ä | down | Â | flex fingers at tips | Ó | blow air out |
| è | up and down | Ã | open and close fingers | Ô | raspberry |
| é | right | Ä | drum fingers | Õ | chin wag |
| ê | left | È | rub fingers | Ö | suck in cheeks |
| ë | right and left | É | bend wrist | Ù | puff out cheeks |
| ì | in | Ê | lateral movement of wrist | Ú | open mouth |
| í | out | Ë | rotate wrist | Û | wink |
| î | up and to the right | Ì | rotate forearm | Ü | rotate body |
| ï | up and to the left | ||||
| ò | down and to the right | ||||
| ó | down and to the left | ||||
| ô | arc | ||||
| õ | flex/extend arm | ||||
| ö | circular (vertical) | ||||
| ù | circular (horizontal) | ||||
| ú | circular (frontal) | ||||
The ELiS visiographemes are organized in a fixed structure, which serves for any type of sign: Handshape, Palm Orientation, Location and Movement. This is to say that, when a word is written using ELiS, first write the Handshape (HS) visiographemes, followed by, Palm Orientation (PO), Location (LOC) and finally, Movement (M) being that some signs that do not have movement therefore it is left out when being written. For example, the Libras sign "BONITO" (beautiful) https://youtube.com/shorts/xY-IBDoGfCI?si=dyCChMzn-cLEmUka is written as follows:
| HS | PO | LOC | M |
|---|---|---|---|
| tg | ç | Q | Ä |
The reader should first take note of the description of each visographeme and the movements they suggest, ultimately, the reader will be able to perform the Libras sign for BONITO.
HS: thumb and other fingers extended
PO: palm facing backward
LOC: hand in front of the face
M: closing the hand finger by finger (drumming of fingers without repetition)
In ELiS there are six types of signs: one-handed, two-handed symmetrical, two-handed asymmetrical, two-handed semi-symmetrical, with supporting hand and compound. The sign tgçQÄ (BONITO), presented previously, is an example of a one-handed sign, which is the most basic type of sign in ELiS. The other types of signs, despite following the same sequence of organization of visographemes, have specific requirements in their spelling. See below for the structure of the six types of sign spelling in EliS:
| One-Handed | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss |
BONITO (Libras)
|
||||||||
| Structure |
|
||||||||
| Sign Spelling | tgçQÄ | ||||||||
| Two-Handed Symmetrical | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss | LIMPO (Libras) | ||||||||||
| Structure |
|
||||||||||
| Sign Spelling | /tgzKÄ | ||||||||||
| Two-Handed Asymmetric | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss | INTERVALO (Libras) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Structure
Dominant and
non-dominant hand
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sign Spelling | tg|zthçc&|3%-ê | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two-Handed Semi Symmetric | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss |
SEMANA (Libras)
|
||||||||||
| Structure |
|
||||||||||
|
|
A two-handed semi symetrical signg is when one to three groups have different specifications for each hand, in that case, this is just one of the possible ways to write this type of sign. | ||||||||||
| Sign Spelling | tgqggqvJé | ||||||||||
| With Supporting Hand | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss |
VERDADE
(Libras)
|
||||||||
| Structure |
|
||||||||
| The location refers to the non-dominant hand, the rest of groups refer to the dominant hand | |||||||||
| Sign Spelling | wgsqv@äm | ||||||||
| Compound | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloss | OBSERVAR (Libras) | ||||||||||||||||
| Structure |
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
Compound signs can be formed by combining any of the 5 other types of signs, so this is only one of the possible ways of writing this type of sign. | ||||||||||||||||
| Sign Spelling | qgqç'1IbqggqvJà | ||||||||||||||||
| Punctuation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Meaning | Where to use | Libras Example | Gloss |
| b | Joins two parts of a compound sign | It is used in compound signs to show the union of two parts, forming a single sign. These two parts can be independent or dependent signs. | qgqz'1Rbqgqç'1A | SURD@ |
| - | Absence of movement in one hand. | It is used in asymmetric or semi symmetric two-handed signs, when only one hand has no movement. | /qgq|lz'1%-äm | PORQUE |
| / | Two-handed with same handshape | It is always used at the beginning of symmetric two-handed sign, and also before semi symmetric signs when their handshapes are the same. | /thz'1_ | CASA |
| Diacritics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Meaning | Where to use | Libras Example | Gloss |
| h | Fingers close together (un-fan fingers) | The line is used for the visiographemes for handshape to show joining of the remaining fingers. | thz'1T>ò|Á | SABER |
| a | Contact of the thumb and indicated finger. | The dot is used for handshape visiographemes. | eaaaglJé | OI |
| > | Right side of the location | These diacritics are always used on the right side of the location visiographeme. | yqzK>ä | BOLSA |
| < | Left side of the location | eozk<ü | AMOR | |
| '1 | Simple contact at the location | These diacritics are used under the location visiographemes. | qggqv'1#ë | VERDE |
| '2 | Contact two times at location | wgsqv'2Ëé | PEDAGOGIA | |
| '3 | Contact a three or more times at location | tgv'3Jé | CRIANÇAS | |
| m | Repeated movement | The double dot is used at the top right of the movement visiographemes. | tgqzKám | TER |
| n | Alternating movement | /tgqlJèn | TELEVISÃO | |
| Superscripts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Meaning | Where to use | ASL Example | Gloss (ASL) |
| |l|ç|z|x|c|v | Modifies palm handshape to show direction fingers are pointed. | The palm orientation superscript are added after the handshape visiographeme to show direction the entire hand is pointed. | qgq|çv'1Té | BLACK |
| |á|é|ó|í|ú…… | Modifies the movement by including more granular movement descriptions. | All movement and non-manual visiographemes can include one or several additional movement superscripts to refine movement definition. | /tgçKä|Ì | DRESS |
| |1|2|3|4|5 | Modifies a location or movement by indicating a specific finger | The number superscript can be used to indicate a specific finger as a location, or a specific finger performing a movement. | tgq|zqgqçv'1_|1'1_b
|
OPTION-ONE-OR-TWO |
| kzEû|2 | UNDERSTAND | |||
|
Diacritics Extended?
(Theses diacritics have little to no
documentation. I have made some educated guesses about what
they could mean based on their use in ASL transcriptions
found here:
https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/elis/elis-aslu-lesson-01-15-master.pdf)
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Assumed Meaning | Where to use | ASL Example | Gloss (ASL) |
| § | Modifies the 'limb' location symbols to indicate the 'inside' part of the limb | Apparently used exclusively on limb visiographemes | t³qv'1N§äm | NURSE |
| k | Closed fist (ASL 'S' Handshape) | Appears to be the only handshape symbol that can stand alone. | /kzJìm | COLD |
| ¡²³¤€¼ | Multiple fingers with 'line' diacritics ligatures. | Appears to be used to consolidate the use of multiple finger symbols with the closed fingers diacritic. ( t€q vs. thhq) | t¢ql'1EÁm | HORSE |