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As the availability of signed language data has rapidly increased, sign scholars have been confronted with the challenge of creating a common framework for the cross-linguistic comparison of the phonological forms of signs. While transcription techniques have played a fundamental role in the creation of cross-linguistic comparative databases for spoken languages, transcription has featured much less prominently in sign research and lexicography. Here we report the experiences of the Sign Change project in using the signed language transcription system HamNoSys to create a comparative database of basic vocabulary for thirteen signed languages. We report the results of a small-scale study, in which we measured (i) the average time required for two trained transcribers to complete a transcription and (ii) the similarity of their independently produced transcriptions. We find that, across the two transcribers, the transcription of one sign required, on average, one minute and a half. We also find that the similarity of transcriptions differed across phonological parameters. We consider the implications of our findings about transcription time and transcription similarity for other projects that plan to incorporate transcription techniques. 

In contrast to scholars and signers in the nineteenth century, William Stokoe conceived of American Sign Language (ASL) as a unique linguistic tradition with roots in nineteenth-century langue des signes française , a conception that is apparent in his earliest scholarship on ASL. Stokoe thus contributed to the theoretical foundations upon which the field of sign language historical linguistics would later develop. This review focuses on the development of sign language historical linguistics since Stokoe, including the field's significant progress and the theoretical and methodological problems that it still faces. The review examines the field's development through the lens of two related problems pertaining to how we understand sign language relationships and to our understanding of cognacy, as the term pertains to signs. It is suggested that the theoretical notions underlying these terms do not straightforwardly map onto the historical development of many sign languages. Recent approaches in sign language historical linguistics are highlighted and future directions for research are suggested to address the problems discussed in this review.