Editing Cued speech (section)

==Nature and use==
Though to a hearing person, cued speech may look similar to signing, it is not a [[sign language]]; nor is it a [[Manually coded language|manually coded sign system]] for a spoken language. Rather, it is a manual modality of communication for representing any language at the phonological level ([[phonetics]]).

A manual cue in cued speech consists of two components: hand shape and hand position relative to the face. Hand shapes distinguish consonants and hand positions distinguish vowel. A hand shape and a hand position (a "cue") together with the accompanying mouth shape, makes up a CV unit - a basic syllable.<ref>Heracleous, P. Beautemps, D. & Aboutabit, N. (2010). Cued speech automatic recognition in normal-hearing and deaf subjects. ''Speech Communication,'' 52, 504–512.</ref>

Cuedspeech.org lists 64 different dialects to which CS has been adapted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cuedspeech.org/cued-speech-in-different-languages |title=Cued Speech in Different Languages {{!}} National Cued Speech Association |website=www.cuedspeech.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728203404/http://www.cuedspeech.org/cued-speech-in-different-languages |archive-date=2012-07-28}}</ref>  Each language takes on CS by looking through the catalog of the language's phonemes and distinguishing which phonemes appear similar when pronounced and thus need a hand sign to differentiate them.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}}