Typical search questions include 'Why do gay people talk with a lisp?', 'Can I get rid of my gay lisp?' and 'Do gays lisp all the time?' These questions really are the stuff of multiple research projects and doctoral dissertations, and there are no ready answers available.įascinated by the sheer volume of such searches, and the interest people have in the connections between gay speech styles and lisping, I did a few searches on the topic myself.Īlthough I found very little material written from a linguistics or communication sciences perspective, there were a few relevant pages, such as the article here, discussion here, and some biting satire. One of the most prominent search words for this site is 'lisp'. This article, written in 2002 by Caroline Bowen is about code switching, gay speech styles, and speech characteristics including lisping. Beyond lisping - Code Switching and Gay Speech Styles. It is the last frontier, as it were, of inveterate, unreasonable, hatred.' Rabbi Alexander Schindler 1925-2000īowen, C. 'Homophobia, it seems, is the only prejudice that remains respectable, that has not been de-legitimized, which has not been cut off from its wellsprings.
Beyond lisping - Code Switching and Gay Speech Styles
