Articulatory Play Among American Cuers

Cuers are a socially significant category in terms of language playthey are interesting from a linguistic anthropological perspective in that respect because their performance, expressed using manual English at the phonemic level rather than the traditional spoken model, has had very limited documentation. For this reason, a study of language play in cueing addresses various questions about modality in general. In this article I am interested in seeing how cuers take advantage of the linguistic resources offered by both modalities.After a brief definition and background on Cued Speech, this article discusses spoken and signed language play and follows with a description and an analysis of various types of cued English play.