Why Linked Examples?

When writing about how to cue words, there may be times when examples could be helpful to the reader. You could simply list a few examples. However, with just a bit of code, you can bring your examples to life by linking them to our Cued English Dictionary. 

For example, imagine if you were writing about diphthongs. You could list words that contain diphthongs (e.g., cowboy, flies, race) and those would be helpful to the reader. However, with a little extra effort, you could create interactive examples (e.g., take, mouse, weigh). If you click on those highlighted words, you'll see a pop-up video that will actually show you how to cue.

How to Link Your Examples to the Dictionary

Here is the code you'll need to link a word to it's dictionary entry:

1. Type two opening curly brackets: {{
2. Enter the spelling for the word as it appears in the CS dictionary (e.g., weigh)
3. Type a pipe, which is a stright line on your keyboard: | (It's usually located near the delete key)
4. Enter the pronunciation in IPA (it's easiest to cut and paste this directly from the dictionary, but you need to set your preferred notation to IPA in your profile to see the IPA representation).
5. Enter another pipe: |
6. Type the display text. This is exactly what the example will look like on the page. Often it is just the word typed out (e.g., weigh, Weigh). 
7. Type two closing curly brackets: }}

The final product should look something like {{this|ðɪˈs|this}}. 

[In that last example, we prevented it from becoming a link, so you could see the code in all its glory. It might seem scary at first to add code to an iQpedia page, but you can play around and revise it. It can make a big difference for people learning to cue.]

Why do we need to provide both spelling and IPA?

A word can have multiple pronunciations (especially when accents and dialects are involved).  Often examples in Cued Speech depend on the pronunciation of the word, so it's important that we link to the entry in the dictionary that has the proper pronunciation of the word.  The way the code is set up, you can link specifically to differently pronounced words such as lead and lead even though they are spelled the same.

Likewise, a particular pronunciation may have multiple spellings.  Two words can sound the same, but be spelled differently and have different meanings.  Providing the spelling differentiates between homophones such as pray and prey.

So many examples in Cued Speech depend on the spelling and pronunciation of the word involved, especially since the spelling of the word tends to trip up beginning cuers.