Lisps

I have a slight lisp. Just loads of emphasis on the s sound. It's pretty subtle, but my brother's got a really obvious one. I've had it for a while but I've never really noticed.

I dunno. Think biggest difference is that it's not as overdone as it'd be in media.

 

I get laughed at by my Cuban and Peruvian friends because of my "lisp" in Spanish (but it's just a natural Spanish way of speaking Spanish). I learnt it as I began to study Spanish, and now it's probably an unshakeable manner of my speech, so I don't think it equates to a "gay lisp." I'm not even sure if a lisp is a stereotype of gay men in the Spanish world.

In English, I have a slight lisp and difficulty with some words that forces me to enunciate clearly, but I sound not in the slightest bit steroptypically gay. On the other hand my boyfriend has no lisp at all, but sounds moderately stereotypically gay, which goes against the stereotype somewhat. I was definitely born with the lisp/problem, but it somehow helps my speech sound more collected and masculine. :lol:

 

I've always been in schools for special needs kids and have heard many lisps. I'd say the difference is the real lisps aren't stylish in any way.

 

I do not even agree with the term "lisp" being used to refer to "someone who sounds stereotypically gay" because, as someone in the medical field, I can say a "lisp" is truly a condition in which one has a speech disorder and cannot articulate certain words, letters or sounds and this has nothing to do with the way the term gets thrown around in regards to some gay mens speech.

Then, even more frustrating, some men (usually gay), endure hell from others for their "gay voice." For example, I apparently have "gay voice" and was bullied for it school (I wasn't even aware of my voice) and it made me anxious to even talk. Then you have people who say, "I don't mind gay guys, but why do they have to talk like that?" My voice is just my voice and I can assure you, whatever it is in my voice that sounds "gay" is not done on purpose, quite the opposite. I endured hell for it and did not like it, though I was unaware of it to my own ears. I am 27, so I don't know how kids act in school now, but when I was in school, they had no issue pointing it out.

 

That's not a lisp, that's sibilance. A lisp is producing a "th" sound when pronouncing the letter "s".

For the record, I speak with neither a lisp nor pronounced sibilance. I am "straight sounding".

 

I don't think that definition of lisp is what people mean when they say "gay lisp".

Is it?

Lisps aside, there have been people who said I sound a little gay. Not many, but there have been occasions. I personally do hear it sometimes, especially when my voice has been recorded and it makes me cringe. But that could also be because well, it's my own voice and it sounds weird to me either way.

 

I dont have a lisp but i pronounce everything really clearly and quite high voice so thats why people say i sound gay but more people just say i sound like a girl~

 

It sounds like you learned Continental or Castilian Spanish. In the U.S. and maybe Canada, they teach a South American standard Spanish which does not have a lisp. Spaniards can tell when an American has learned it from their school system. It's also referred to as soap opera Spanish, because it's intended for mass media for a Latin American audience.

I don't have a lisp. However, about once every couple of years, I will mispronounce something if confused or hurrying and it will sound like a "th" when it should have been a "s." Example: "thaucer" when meaning to say "the saucer."

 

There's a lot of vocal mannerisms that go into the so-called "gay voice", which I won't stoop to analyze here. Suffice it to say I have heard a great many gay men with the lithp lisp, so I assumed that was what was being discussed here. (As mentioned, sibilant pronunciation is kind of a different thing.)