এই প্রকল্পে ইশারা ভাষাসমূহ প্রতিলিপি করার জন্য বিভিন্ন পদ্ধতি ব্যবহার করেছি। প্রথমে একজন স্নাতক সহলেখক তার নিজস্ব প্রতিলিপি পদ্ধতি উদ্ভাবন করেন। পরবর্তীতে দলটা হ্যামনোসিস (HamNoSys, হামবুর্গ নোটেশন সিস্টেম) নামক একটা প্রতিলিপি পদ্ধতি ব্যবহার শুরু করে। এভাবে আমরা শেষ পর্যন্ত বাংলা ইশারা ভাষার একটা ধ্বনিতাত্ত্বিক রূপরেখা তৈরি করতে এবং এর সহোদর ভাষাগুলোর আভিধানিক বিশ্লেষণ করতে পেরেছি। HamNoSys-এর বিবরণ এই উৎসগুলোতে পাওয়া যাবে:

• হামবুর্গ বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়

• ব্লাঞ্চার্ডসটাউন প্রযুক্তি ইনস্টিটিউট

• ইশারা ভাষা এবং বধিরদের যোগাযোগের উপর আন্তর্জাতিক গবেষণা

For our project, we have used various methods to transcribe sign languages. Initially, one of the undergraduate coauthors devised their own transcription method. Later on the team moved to using a transcription method called HamNoSys (Hamburg Notation System). This allowed us to construct a phonetic sketch of Bangla SL and provide a lexical analysis of its sister languages. A description of HamNoSys can be found at these resources:

• Universität Hamburg

• Institute of technology Blanchardstown

• International Studies on Sign Language and the Communication of the Deaf

HamNoSys first notates the handshape, in the ORANGE cell. This includes one of the twelve basic handshape symbols along with diacritics indicating thumb placement and whether or not specific fingers are stretched, hooked, or curled. In our use of HamNoSys, we also include handshape change in the Handshape cell, and the mode of this change (if it has repetition).

We then notate orientation in the BLUE cell. Orientation comes in two parts:

• Pointer finger direction, which encapsulates the three dimensional angle your pointer finger makes with the center of your body in the case where your handshape became a pointer finger handshape.

• Palm position, which encapsulates where your palm would be oriented if your arm was moved to your side with your forearm normal to your body without moving your wrist.

Location is notated in the third cell in LAVENDER and specific symbols are used for different parts of the body, to indicate whether your hands are on the left or the right side, and whether they are close or making contact. 

• Location only describes the initial position of the sign, but occasionally further location characters can be used in the Movement cell to indicate changes in location. 

• If both hands are used in the sign and they interact in any way, the hands' location relative to each other is first described, and then relative to the signers' body. 

• It is important to note that anything that indicates the left or right side of the body means from the signer's perspective.

Lastly, movement is notated in the fourth cell in YELLOW. HamNoSys allows us not only to indicate the direction of the motion, but also the manner (fast, slow, abrupt), size, and has a special library for curved movement. 

When two hands are used, they have different types of symmetry. Symmetrical two-handed signs have an extra RED cell left of Handshape.

• Asymmetric signs are just notated by notating the right, then the left hand's behavior in each cell, separated by the hamplus symbol.

• Signs that are mirrored across the center of the signer's chest uses two dots horizontally (hamsymmlr)

• Signs where the hands move in parallel uses two dots vertically (hamsymmpar)

• Other types of symmetry, including alternating symmetry (where the hands' motion is offset by a half-circle phase shift) can be notated as described in the user guide.

Most of the time in Bangla SL, there is no sign of agreement; there are no changes or markings that indicate changes in subject or object. A subset of verbs, however, does indicate agreement through onset and offset. 

Verbs like QUESTION, ANSWER, or GIVE canonically indexing their subject & object. 

Arguments show their syntactic role only through word order. There are no overt case markings, meaning there is a lack of case marking. 

For some verbs, the verb onset can be dropped. Such verbs then appear theme/object-oriented. This is similar to  ISL. There are also a small set of verbs can only align to theme/object . This is unlike ISL. 

Bangla SL indexicals have no gender markings. This aligns with spoken Bangla but does not align with ISL, which does have gendered indexicals. 

Like spoken South Asian languages, in Bangla Sign Language compounds combine nouns without overt case markings. In Bangla SL, lack of case markings means these are identical to possessive construction. 

Throughout the research, the team found that spoken South Asian languages and ISL (Indian Sign Language) have head-final phrase structures. Typically, the sentences follow an SOV (Subject, Object, Verb) structure. If there is a possessor, the possessor precedes the possessum, and the modifier noun precedes the head noun. In Bangla SL, any embedded clauses follow the verb. 

সংযোজক শব্দ হলো 'আছে' বা 'হয়'-এর মতো একটা শব্দ, যা কর্তাকে বর্ণনা বা সংজ্ঞায়িত করে। বাংলা ইশারা ভাষায়, কিছু সংযোজক শব্দকে HAVE হিসাবে অনুবাদ করা হয় (যেমন "আমি সবসময় স্কুলে আছি/থাকি" এই উপরের উদাহরণের শেষে দেখা যায়), আবার অন্যগুলোকে কেবল অনুবাদ না করেই রেখে দেওয়া হয়, অর্থাৎ সেগুলো "শূন্য সংযোজক" বলা যায়। HAVE-এর কথ্য বাংলায় অনেকভাবে অনুবাদ করা যায়, কয়েকটা সম্ভাব্য উদাহরণ হলোঃ আছে, থাকে, হয়।
A copula is a word like be, which can describe or define the subject. In Bangla SL, some copulas are translated as HAVE (as in the end of the example above: "I am always at school"), while others are simply left untranslated, i.e. they are null copulas. The spoken Bengali/Bangla translations of HAVE can vary: আছ- ach- 'to be, to exist', or থাক- thak- 'to remain', হ- hô 'to happen, to become' are just a few possibilities.

Vector verbs in South Asian languages involve a pole followed by a vector. In Bangla, for example, this can look like the word GIVE acting as a vector to indicate direction. 

While this is present and evident in Bangla SL, these construction methods are not described for Bangla SL's sister language, ISL. 

বাংলা ইশারা ভাষায় নেতিবাচক শব্দটা ক্রিয়াপদের পরে বসে, অথবা ক্রিয়াপদটাকেই বদলে ফেলে। এটা ভারতীয় ইশারা ভাষা ও কথ্য বাংলার সাথে মিলে গেলেও, দক্ষিণ এশিয়ার অনেক কথ্য ভাষা থেকে ভিন্ন। এই উদাহরণে, ইশারাভাষী বলছেন "এটা বিড়াল নয়", যেখানে "নয়" শব্দটা শেষে আসছে।
In Bangla SL, the negation word appears after the verb, or replaces the verb. This matches ISL and spoken Bengali/Bangla, but is different from many other spoken South Asian languages. In this example the signer is saying "this is not a cat", with the "not" word coming last.

Wh-elements (question words) are also usually (but not always) postverbal. The structure of having wh-elements in the final position matches ISL. 

A resumptive index is something that repeats the antecedent within a relative clause. In Bangla SL, this appears in the sentence-finally. 

There is no equivalence in spoken South Asian Languages, but there are parallels in ISL