Most people think stammering and stuttering are the same but they're as different as diarrhoea and constipation. Stuttering's when you say the first bit of the word but can't stop saying it over and over. St-st-st-stutter. Like that. Stammering's where you get stuck straight after the first bit of the word. Like this. St...AMmer!
Is this really true? Maybe - but even if it isn't, it should be.
8 comments:
As alluded to in the linked discussion, in everyday use 'stuttering' is heard in the US almost to the exclusion of 'stammering', and 'stammering' is used in the UK almost to the exclusion of 'stuttering'.
I always thought stammering was a result of just being nervous. Repeating a word or short phrase more than once rather than a sound.
Lynneguist: true. But I wonder whether everyday use differs from the use in speech therapy circles (on one or both sides of the Atlantic).
I've taught speech-therapists-to-be in both countries, and at least in the training stage, they have seemed to use the terms pretty much as the rest of society has. Some of the UK ones have had some particular ideas about one or the other being more 'politically correct', but I can't remember which word got that glory.
It's based on David Mitchell's own experience as a child, I think, so it would be strange if he had got these conditions mixed up. Still, it's a fab book and I couldn't put it down for a minute when I read it.
Fran - I can well believe that Black Swan Green is based on Mitchell's own childhood; it feels so much more personal than Cloud Atlas. Although I liked that novel, it seemed like an extended technical exercise more than anything else.
I thought that stuttering and stammering are similar and related with neurological problems. Anyway, thanks for the differentiation between the two. I'll have to find it out and clear my doubts.
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