# Name of speech impediment **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718 "2011-04-17T12:32:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/1 "2011-04-17T12:32:30Z")
Everyone is familiar with the speech impediment where the sufferer substitutes the sound of W for R and in severe cases, L. “Mawidge, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wiffim a dweam…” Is there a name for it? I presume it is not merely an affectation or accent issue (of course, it may be in some cases). My sense is that the word “lisp” only applies to Th for S substitutions, the Cindy Brady impediment, but it might be more general. Do I have that right? ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/2 "2011-04-17T12:52:53Z")
Evidently it’s called “ **rhotacism** ”. [wiki link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotacism) ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/3 "2011-04-17T13:12:14Z")
Eh. I wiki’d speech impediment and didn’t see it, and didn’t know what name to look for after that. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/4 "2011-04-17T13:29:55Z")
I actually asked this awhile back, [here’s a link to the old thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=97756), if anyone is interested in what was said back then. I call it the Elmer Fudd syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/5 "2011-04-17T13:44:11Z")
There are a few talking heads in the biblical based [almost] documentaries that have speech impediments. One guy drives me nuts [he is some sort of authority in biblical archeology] He sounds just like a professor I had in ab psych. He drove me nuts also, I kept wanting to yell at him to go to speech therapy. When he got rocking along with enthusiasm he got damned near incomprehensible. Why do people with speech impediments get into professions where they do lots of public speaking and NOT get corrective training? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/6 "2011-04-17T14:24:05Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Why do people with speech impediments get into professions where they do lots of public speaking and NOT get corrective training? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/7 "2011-04-17T15:56:49Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > There are a few talking heads in the biblical based [almost] documentaries that have speech impediments. One guy drives me nuts [he is some sort of authority in biblical archeology] He sounds just like a professor I had in ab psych. He drove me nuts also, I kept wanting to yell at him to go to speech therapy. When he got rocking along with enthusiasm he got damned near incomprehensible. > > Why do people with speech impediments get into professions where they do lots of public speaking and NOT get corrective training? Yeah, how 'bout that opera singer (forgot the name, but he performs _“Kill The Wabbit”_)! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/8 "2011-04-17T16:32:24Z")
There’s another one in the OP: using [f] for /θ/ (th). I know it’s actually a part of a few English accents, but surely it still has a term (even if it isn’t different for the impediment.) Also, I had a friend in junior high/high school who had problems with de-rhotacization. She blamed it on only having one lung. Is there any correlation? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/9 "2011-04-17T20:50:46Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > Everyone is familiar with the speech impediment where the sufferer substitutes the sound of W for R and in severe cases, L. > > “Mawidge, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wiffim a dweam…” > > Is there a name for it? I presume it is not merely an affectation or accent issue (of course, it may be in some cases). > > My sense is that the word “lisp” only applies to Th for S substitutions, the Cindy Brady impediment, but it might be more general. Do I have that right? And, we should consider the border between an “accent” and a “speech impediment”. I have ancestry from several areas where the English language accent is different, and where my ancestors did speak with that accent, but I cannot. Is this a speech impediment? Most would say no. Would it become a speech impediment if I moved to a place where the ancestral accent is spoken nowadays, but I find that I cannot pick it up/learn it satisfactorily, but continue to speak with a Mid-Atlantic American accent? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/10 "2011-04-17T21:14:43Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > And, we should consider the border between an “accent” and a “speech impediment”. I have ancestry from several areas where the English language accent is different, and where my ancestors did speak with that accent, but I cannot. Is this a speech impediment? Most would say no. Would it become a speech impediment if I moved to a place where the ancestral accent is spoken nowadays, but I find that I cannot pick it up/learn it satisfactorily, but continue to speak with a Mid-Atlantic American accent? Nope, still not a speech impediment. A speech impediment - more specifically, a speech sound disorder, articulation type - is an inability to produce sounds\* as spoken in the dialect a person grew up with\*. So being unable to learn a sound in a dialect you didn’t grow up with wouldn’t be considered a speech impediment by a speech therapist doing a formal speech evaluation, although of course a layperson might call it one if you “talk funny”. I’m never going to get the middle sound in _après_ right. It doesn’t exist in my native dialect. I can make an approximation that might fool Americans where the back of my tongue raises to mostly block the pharynx, but a native French speaker would notice in a second. It’s not a speech impediment, it’s an accent. Even if I move to Paris, it won’t become a speech impediment, it will remain an (American) accent. My grandma has that “f” for “th” thing, most noticeable when she wishes you a “happy birfday.” Apparently, taken along with other details of her dialect, it allows a trained expert to place her childhood address within a few miles. It’s part of her dialect because it’s shared by other people she was raised with - therefore it’s not a speech impediment. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/11 "2011-04-18T17:13:07Z")
Markxxx: > [@](#): > > I call it the Elmer Fudd syndrome. My thought exactly. You’d think that a millionaire who owns a mansion and a yacht could afford some speech therapy sessions. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/12 "2011-04-18T18:28:33Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Markxxx: > > My thought exactly. > > You’d think that a millionaire who owns a mansion and a yacht could afford some speech therapy sessions. I remember hearing years ago that the reason that the Castillian Spanish accent has s-\>unvoiced th (e.g. in contrast to Mexican Spanish, where it is an s), was that a Spanish King in times past had had a speech impediment lisp and that others took to speaking like him out of respect. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-speech-impediment/578718/13 "2011-04-18T19:17:21Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > I remember hearing years ago that the reason that the Castillian Spanish accent has s-\>unvoiced th (e.g. in contrast to Mexican Spanish, where it is an s), was that a Spanish King in times past had had a speech impediment lisp and that others took to speaking like him out of respect. That’s the story, but it’s just that–a story. There’s no truth, so far as I’ve ever found, to that explanation of the “th” sound in Castillian Spanish.