Cued Speech [was: Re: Sign Language?]

At 3:18 PM -0800 1/14/03, Sarah Marie Parker-Allen wrote:
>
>In case you don't know what Cued Speech is (it's a bit hard to explain, and
>I only know about it thanks to my father's brother, whose son is deaf),
>here's a few links:
>http://www.cuedspeech.org/
>http://www.cuedspeech.com/
>
>I should probably point out that in the case of Cued Speech, you'd likely
>only actually have to come up with a few extra signs (at most); it's
>flexible enough that you can use it as is for almost all the Romance
>languages.  This is a basic card with the signs; though technically they say
>this is a tool for teaching only and isn't accepted within the Deaf
>community, I know at least three families that use it exclusively (including
>mine) for communication, and eschew ASL or Signed Exact English:
>
>http://members.aol.com/HilAct/ccard2.jpg
Three years ago at the University of Utah, I had a student in one of my courses who
had a Cued Speech transliterator. I was very interested, since it was obvious
that what she was doing was not ASL. Cued Speech is not meant to be a language
in the same sense as ASL; it is meant to be an alternate representation of the
ambient spoken language. The signs of Cued Speech represent a phonological
level somewhat intermediate between the phonemic and the phonetic. Thus, the
sounds of the language are represented manually. Since Cued Speech is meant to
be a phonemic representation (roughly), all it takes for the representation of
other languages is to ensure that the phonemic system is mapped to the system
of signs. I was quite impressed with the fluency of signing.

You'll notice that there are two websites (.com and .org). There is a growing
division in the Cued Speech community; one of the points of contention is how
abstract the phonology of English is which must be represented, with one
faction wanting a very surfacy representation (.com), and the other wanting
more abstraction (.org). There's more to it than that, but that's what it
boiled down to for me, and I have forgotten the particulars now (I did some
consulting work last year for the Cued Speech and Language Association of Utah;
they were preparing materials and wanted someone who knew about English
phonology).

I'm not interested in debating the issue of Cued Speech vs ASL in the deaf
community; there are very strong feelings on both sides of the divide. I will
only say that the families I met who use Cued Speech are satisfied that it
meets their needs. What more can you reasonably expect?

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga                                               Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"It is important not to let one's aesthetics interfere with the appreciation of
fact." - Stephen Anderson