I think it would be a good idea to have it so you can still use it regardless if you are silenced/gagged. But make it you can not use the '' if you are silenced. You should be able to use other forms of signals to show that you are unable to talk ie. pointing to you mouth and making gestures that you are unable to.
just some of my thoughts. What do the other players think?
An interesting idea. Maybe the immortals can look into it? 
Ummm, experiment.
coughssmotecoughs
I tried using smote and pmote when silenced and I thought it said the samething like if you tried to Emote.
You can smote when silenced. However, I think there should be the restriction on using the speech marks because you can then make your character 'talk' whilst silenced. It works.
Dey
That would be classified as emote abuse.
That's what I mean, and it shouldn't be allowed, because if someone gets silenced they can just use smote xxx says "Hah!". I'm not sure if it's the same with gag.
Dey
yeah, I wouldn't reccomend doing it, but you can.
If someone does that just log it or pray or send a note about it, and expect that other person to get IMMslapped. Or something. 
I'd like to ad, make it possible to emote while sleeping. If you cant, how will the rest of the world know you are having the worst nightmare ever?
When there's a nasty person lighting you up like a christmas tree, I would think that there's a nasty nightmare you'd be having. Or soon would be. In an RP situation, there's ways around that.
Personally, I think illithids/psionics should be capable of giving horrible nightmares to people who are sleeping. That'd be awesome
Your body wracks in pain as large swords slice through your abdomen. Your blood sprays in a violent manner and you feel as though nothing could be left in the world.
You are dieing....
You wake up.
Dreams, yes!!! In one other mud, your character saw dreams when he was sleeping. That was rather entertaining.
Maybe give psi-classes/races (psi, illithid, demon) a skill so that they can watch dreams of sleeping person.
sl
You go to sleep.
In your dreams you see a absolutely huge dragon flying on the skies and torching the villages. You go to fight the dragon, and beat the Bryntryst out of it!
In your dreams you fight against a horde of undeads that keep pouring under the ground. Fight is intesive, but you seem to be victorious.
You feel as if a needle would be struck on your brain.
In your dreams you are imprisoned by an huge trolls that are about to cook you as their dinner. There is absolutely nothing you can do, and you feel utterly helpless.
wa
You wake and stand up.
l
A Psi is here, grinning.
An Illithid is here, snickering.
An Illithird shows you his proficiency with cause nightmares: 95%
a
You are affected by:
Spell: Nightmares for 1h
And if you think about PK use for the skill, it could slightly reduce mana/hp/mv-point gain while affected is sleeping.
Then you could create special item for thieves that casts cause nightmare on (successful?) jack, or special gloves for ninjas. 
Against ogre/mage it would be super.
Umm. Too similar to some stuff what can't be discussed?
Then I propably don't know that stuff.