There is no phonetic inventory of ASL because it is an entirely signed and not spoken language. However while there are no sounds or tonal structures that exist only in ASL and not in English, there are certain signs or words that exist only in English and not ASL which make it difficult to translate ASL into exact English. English has over a 100,000+ different unique words, comparatively ASL only has about 10,000+ so people who communicate in ASL must find new and innovative ways to convey the same idea in more signs or words. This is increasingly difficult as langauge begins to quickly change from generation to generation.
It is still possible to observe pitch and stress in ASL through non-manal indicators though, like raising your eyebrows indicates a "yes" or "no" qestion mimicking the raised pitch of a native English speaker when asking a question. Similarly, the last sign is held for an extended amount of time when asking a question in ASL, mimicking the stress an English speaker may place on a question word (ie. who, what, when, where, why) when asking a question. So, even if not exact, ASL is dictated by phonetics and phones.
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