Re: fastly spoken english

I've noticed that I don't do much in the way of mumbling my words when I
talk fast.  I've made recordings of myself speaking in a sort of "fast" mode
(that is, fast to me, which is generally so fast that most people ask me to
slow down -- every time I've moved to a new region it seems my speech has
only sped up, even when I've lived in the South), and when you slow them
down, it sounds more or less like your "hypercorrect" speech.  The funny
thing is, I think that's part of why people don't understand it.  My
upbringing really prejudiced me against unauthorized contractions and slang
(took me years to become okay with "gonna," one of my few mumbled words),
but I'm pretty sure they're actually useful for helping people cope with
sped up speech.  Which is weird, since you'd think that taking out
information would make it harder... I have no evidence for my theory except
that other people I know, who also speak quite fast but seem to mumble more,
are more easily understood than me (when I speak slowly, people understand
me just fine -- and as I said, when you slow down my "fast" recordings, it
sounds more or less the way I sound when I speak slowly).

For the record, it sounds like "um gonna have some tea" when I speak that
sentence down there quickly.

Sarah Marie Parker-Allen
lloannna@surfside.net
http://www.geocities.com/lloannna.geo
http://lloannna.blogspot.com

"I will not turn into a snake. It never helps." -- Rules for the Evil
Overlord

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of E. Notagain
> My style: (I have a mumbled and nasal "Cleveland, Ohio" accent, just to
> inform you)
>
> Slow, hypercorrect speech:
> "I am going to have some tea"
> ai &m gouiN tu h&v s@m ti
> Really fast:
> I'm'onna a'some tea
> @m@n@ &z@m ti
---
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