Wanted to practice some skeleton hands and ended up working on skeleton sign language :D
HC and stuff below the keep reading :)
I used most of the first few letters from the capital wingdings alphabet, and others are some ASL letters or miscellaneous hand positions.
Of course this is something many skeletons use, including those with injuries or lack of magic letting them speak. it is not a fix all for everyone, but works well enough for many. Given that skeletons are often the ones travelling the multiverse, this language is also incredibly well known across the multiverse.
I have a hc that most sanses (and papyruses often enough) know "hands" or skeleton sign language, coming from their parent gasters that only speak in wingdings or in hands. I also know that Wingdings are not exclusively made out of hand symbols, but i like that idea so I will run with it here.
They learn as children because of the idea that sanses can sometimes see codes, text boxes instead of always just hearing dialogue and stuff like that, kind of like in the way that I think traditional skeleton names are often derived by their fonts that parents can see. Given the only two concrete examples of skeletons are sans and papyrus, it's a limited sample but works well enough.
I hc that even if a skeleton doesn't know the actual signs of skeleton hands, they can often finger spell since the signs used in this version of wingdings would be visual. Even if they don't know the sign language, they would know the visual enough to be able to recall how to handspell themselves.
I also love the idea of hand dialects :D it is a real thing, people who use sign language do make signs in different ways depending on where they are fro/where they learned.
Underfell for example, uses a lot of very sharp but fairly small gestures. they sign higher on the chest as well and have many more crude words in their sign.
Swap/blue uses incredibly large signs with much enthusiasm, and he is a lot faster at signing as well.
Dream and Nightmare use a much more "refined" version of hands, with much older vocabulary and their signs are a lot more graceful, similar to a ballerina and how they keep their hands poised and perfect all the time. theirs has a lot more sweeping motions and gestures.
All of Nightmare's gang bar Cross use the Classic hands, which is much slower and mellower, with signs signed lower on the chest and usually with smaller gestures. Each of their worlds are mutations from the original Undertale, so their sign comes from there as well. Horror and Dust are the best at it, using it more often than Killer, but he knows very well how to understand and sign back.
Cross was discouraged from using hands as a child, even though for him it was often a lot easier than speaking, and he mostly knows what they use on missions and things like commands. His hands is very sharp and precise and to the point, and there are much fewer expressions or larger gestures involved.
Ink never actually learned it since he didn't really come from a typical universe, but he did start learning it eventually pretty passively from Dream and Blue when they wouild occasionally slip into speaking wingdings. He signs a mix of the two, with precise grace but with the absolute wild nature from Blue.
Error often uses signs when he has trouble talking due to his glitches. he also uses a more classic version because he comes from Geno who comes from Classic
Patch often uses signs a lot, though sometimes also struggles with that since he only has one arm. he can fingerspell incredibly fast to compensate and usually it works pretty well and having lived together a long time, Rigel can understand his shorthand most of the time as well. While Patch can technically summon his magic to form the magic to speak and his tongue to form words, he is missing a large section of his jaw, making it incredibly uncomfortable and difficult to speak. he can still however do other noises such as chirring, rattling, and purring like many skeletons and often uses those to communicate minor things as well.
I have more hc but this is all that I can think of right now :) I hope you enjoy and please reblog/like if you want :)
