Or I used to.
I've been told that it's gone away. Some claim they still hear it.
I don't know, I've never really been aware of it, personally.
I figure it's a result of an underdeveloped jaw and teeth that are just too bloody big for my head. I have vague memories of being sent to a speech-language pathologist as a small child who spent hours with me insisting that I try to make a boat with my tongue...
Clearly, the pathologist was a waste of time, because 20+ years later I still had this impediment. Go figure.
I once dated a guy who had a real 'thing' for my lisp. For reasons entirely beyond my comprehension, he found it...sexy?
Let me be clear. I don't have one of those cute cross-between-a-two-year-old-and-Tweety-Bird lisps where all your Elle's and Arh's come out like Double-You's.
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| "Hewwo Saiwor.. Buy Me a Dwink?" - Source |
In university, I somehow always ended up doing oral presentations on topics that succeeded in aggravating my particular speech impediment:
For History of Science: An independent study on the history and development of the Oral Contraceptive. Lots of fun words to say, like Estrogen, and Progesterone!
For Minority Groups throughout the World: A presentation on... The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
and for Environmental Science: The Commercial Fishing Industry in Canada: Pacific Salmon.
Oh yeah.. for that last one, I had a choice, east coast or west coast. Do you think I picked the east coast? Oh Hell no. That would have been too easy. Not nearly enough Ess sounds in ATLANTIC COD, noshiree.
*sigh*
Wait..
*shigh*
Hmmmm... the one time I talked to you, I don't believe I heard any lisp. Of course, it was so long ago, who's to say? Certainly not I ;-)
ReplyDeleteI bet you lisp when saying lisp like how stutterers can't say stutter. Man, people who name speech impediments were dicks. (Excerpt from my 1982 stand up routine)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I find a lisping woman sexy myself, is there a name for this?
ReplyDelete@Chris - You were probably too busy waiting for me to say aboot
ReplyDelete@pickle - Probably.. it's like Lishp
@Tony - I'm finding it's more common than i thought.. but I can't find a specific name for it, and I've tried all manner of Google search terms I never thought I'd ever use. I even tried to invoke Rule 34. Nothing.
I saw a speech pathologist when I was little! And while mine was just for mispronouncing some letters I also still have my "accent" - and once met a guy who thought it was hot!
ReplyDeleteI saw that! Your post that I commented on today inspired me to write this
ReplyDeleteYour *shigh* at the end made me burst out laughing. That was unexpected. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm 31 and I stutter. It gets way worse when I don't think about what I'm saying before I speak. Probably why I like writing.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't hear it then I say it's gone away but for the losers that feel the need to point it out...there's no 's' involved in giving them the finger. :)
ReplyDelete