Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Gay lisp



The last four years I've kept a blog in spanish, in which one of the most popular entries has been the one about gay lisp.The theme is no small matter, No monkey business. It’s serious business.

A CRISP DEFINITION OF LISP:  a stereotypical speech attribute associated with gay males in English-speaking countries.
This is something not to be taken lightly. There have been studies: LINVILLE (1998) and MUNSON et al (2006) and Professors Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth at the University of Toronto investigated this.
Scientific conclusions.
  1. ONLY GAY MEN HAVE IT
But not all gay men have it.Gay women don’t
  1. HOW TO DEFINE GAY LISP
There are a few features to stereotypical gay speech.  
    1. One is pitch. All things being equal, the higher a voice, the more effeminate a voice sounds, for the obvious reasons.
    2. The second is pitch variability. The more up and down a voice goes in conversation, the more likely it is to be perceived as "excitable", feminine and gay in men. 
  1. DO THEY SPEAK LIKE WOMEN?
No they don’t. It’s something different.

  1. DOES IT COME NATURAL, OR IS ACQUIRED?
Hard to say

  1. DOES ONLY HAPPEN IN ENGLISH? OR IN OTHER LANGUAGES TOO?
It happens in other languages, although I don't know if happens in languages such as the swahili or vietnamese.
  1. DOES IT SIGNAL OTHER MEN THAT THEY ARE GAY?
Since it's a speech pattern, and not some other marker, like clothing, you can also mostly 'turn it off' at will, if meeting someone you do not wish to reveal your orientation to.

  1. THE GAY ACCENT MAY ALSO JUST BE A RESULT OF LIVING IN PROXIMITY TO OTHER GAY PEOPLE with the same accent - a way of identifying with a community.
  2. DO GAY PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHY THEY HAVE THE LISP? No they don’t. I don’t understand it either. I’m not trying higher pitch or anything. It’s just like… the way it is”.
  3. OFTEN, THE 'SHANE' ACCENT IS USED AS AN IDENTIFIER FOR SUBMISSIVE homosexuals, in contrast to the characteristics of the dominant, or 'butch' homosexuals. -Victor Fieri, August 26, 2005.

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