Be vewy vewy quiet

Because i'm vewy vewy horny....am hunting mellis wabbit.

Dont feel bad Mithter, I have a thpeech im, im, im ped ped, pedoment too.


Hi, i'm Thindy, Thindy Brady.

Why do we sound the way we do Elmer?
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What an interesting question(s)(th)!

Ok, first of all the Elmer Fudd Speak is something we refer to as a "weak /r/" or if it happens with /l/, we call it "Gliding of Liquids". Sounds a little dirty but the /r/ and /l/ are classified phonologically as "liquids" and when you say "yeave the wabbit awone" you are "gliding" those liquid sounds.

/s/ becoming "th" is referred to as a "frontal lisp", differentiated from a lateral lisp where the "slurring" takes place on the side of the mouth because that is where the tongue is. Normal /s/ placement is the tongue, just behind the front teeth, barely touching enough to all the air to flow between the space. It's very precise. When the tongue comes forward, you lose that sound.

In American and British English it is not a "correct" pronunciation, and therefore considered a "speech impairment" when seen in adults. In Castilian (Spain Spanish) it is the correct pronunciation.

I was not aware that some posh Brits were using the lisp as an affectation, but read this article from Jersey (the Island in the English Channel between UK and France).

http://www.thisisjersey.com/code/showarticle.pl?ArticleID=000728

Here's another interesting article from one of my favorite web sites about lisping as a gay speech style (affectation)

http://members.tripod.com/Caroline_Bowen/codemix.htm

So why would someone do this? My best guesses....

1. Maybe they just can't help it.
2. Maybe they just don't care.
3. Maybe it "works" for them in some way, i.e., it's considered "cute", it's distinctive (Cindy Brady!)
4. Maybe they are trying (conciously or unconciously) to adopt mannerisms in order to project a quality i.e, gay lisping, child-like qualities, feminine/weak qualities (like many male BBC characters)
5. They bit their tongue.

Here is a link to a website that might have more insight to British Speech affectations.

http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/index.html

Good Luck! I really enjoyed your question!

Erin E. Harrison, MA,CCC-SLP
speech/Language Pathologist

Are you jutht twying to be cute mithter?

It's ok if you wanth to be a little boy Mithter, becauthe if it tuwns you on I could be a vewy little giwl with a cwoss bow.


Do you like cwoss bows Mithter?


My daddy does.