Re: Untouchables [Andreas J., please read]

At 02:10 4.12.2003, Tristan McLeay wrote:

> > [*] I have myself often been treated like an idiot
> > because of the way I speak.
>
>Pardon me if this is out-of-line, but what's the way you speak?
I have cerebral palsy/am a spastic (pick your term).
Due to excessive muscular tension in my articulatory
and respiratory muscles my voice sounds funny.  It
is hard to describe, except that it is vaguely
reminicent of Donald Duck!  I also speak with a
slight overall nasalization unless I make an effort
not to[*], and I have to make an effort not to sound loud.
People don't seem to have a problem with me using
crutches or a wheelchair, assuming that I was in a
car accident, but when they hear me speak many tend
to get a funny look.

[*] Since we have a thread on nasalization:
People speaking my dialect normally realize nasals
before fricatives as nasalization of the preceding
vowel, and I _mutatis mutandis_ realize it as an
even stronger nasalization than what I have generally,
so you may say I have two degrees of nasalization in
my idiolect! :)  Maybe I do make an effort NOT to
nasalize vowel+fricative sequences without an intervening
nasal.  I never tested that.

/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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