To be clear, I am not asking if a corpse can rationally and intelligently vocalize, I am asking if the lips of a dead body can “move” so that it appears that they are attempting to speak, whether by muscle spasm or by the passage of trapped air or gas. I ask because my mother, who has worked in nursing homes for 24 years, messaged me on Facebook last night and told me that a man who had recently died “tried to talk” as he was being moved from his bed to a gurney. This man, as she tells it, had been dead and covered with a sheet for several hours…long enough for rigor mortis to set in. I know bodies spasm sometimes after death (thereby “moving”) but have never heard of a cadaver’s lips moving, and could not find any information on Google.
Moving the body is likely to force air out of the lungs or to force gas out of the stomach. If the throat has collapsed or relaxed (as it would after death), the air/gas could make a noise - imagine letting the air out of a balloon while you hold the neck so the sides touch, but not thought enough to close it.
I remember reading that a body goes into rigor from the face first, and down from there, so it probably goes out of rigor the same way. That means that a body with the legs and torso in rigor, which would definitely feel in rigor to the people moving it, could be out, or at least partially out of rigor in the face and throat. If moving it forced air up the throat or trachea, and the lips and tongue moved a little-- and jostling it while moving it might move the lips too-- it would “babble.” Actually, a mouth partially in rigor, as opposed to fully flaccid, would probably be more likely to make speech-like sounds, instead of something like a raspberry. In fact, it probably made a sound that sounded a little like “Ow.” That would freak me out too, if I were moving a corpse, and my mother is a linguist.
In the book “Fever” by John G. Fuller, he recounts corpses being airlifted by helicopter, and the decreasing air pressure forcing air out the lungs and over the vocal cords causing some kind of vocalization.
But look at some of the other books he’s written, and you might want to take that with a rather hefty grain of salt.
Another effect is that after about 2 days in the warm , or 3 days at 17 C, they start to make gas.
For this reason, drowned people are found floating around on the third day , unless found at the bottom by divers.
Stands to reason that the pressure may adjust the body as it leaves. As pressure builds in the tissues, it will squash on the lungs. So at some time the air/gas in lungs might escape by blowing the tongue forward and that could look like speaking.
I know because around here drowning deaths are far too frequent and we can predict the news …
“There is a search and rescue for a person presumed drowned continued into the night but halted at 10PM”. Just last week, an asian student went to the beach and walked onto a rock platform near brutally powerful waves… drowned people sink at first, but often found floating three days later.
Apparently the body was “attempting to speak” even before it was moved and made no sound. Escaping gas could make a noise, but could it cause the lips to actually move?
I have seen and moved at least 100+ deceased bodies. I have never seen anything like this. I’m not commenting on your mother but people dying is seen as a mysterious and mystical thing. Sometimes people see things because they want to.
Is it possible for the escaping air to make sounds? I’m wondering (although I’ll probably be damned for it) whether the dead can audibly fart or belch. That would be pretty disturbing for an onlooker.