Gaydar—Sendg Mixed Signals | Department of Lguistics | Universy of Colorado Boulr

Contents:

• GAY LISP
• GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS
• THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN
• GAY PCH, LISP?
• GAY LISP

GAY LISP

A gay lisp is actually not a lisp but refers to stereotypil speech attribut assigned to and sometim seen gay mal. Several speech featur are stereotyped as markers of gay male inty: reful pronunciatn, wi pch range, high and rapidly changg pch, breathy tone, lengthened itive sounds, and pronunciatn of t as ts and d as dz.

Some rearchers report that North Amerin gay men tend to pronounce sibilants (s, z, sh, and the like) wh assibilatn -- more sibilatn, hissg, or strincy.

A study by Rudolf Gd vtigated claims that people n intify gay mal by their speech and that the listeners e pch range and fluctuatn cidg. Gd found that listeners uld intify gay male speakers, but that there were no nvcg differenc pch. Some analysts say gay people speak wh an affected accent, as a way of signallg their inty and affiliatn wh the gay subculture, or a way to exprs femy.

GAYDAR—SENDG MIXED SIGNALS

Gay stereotypg.

Encyclopedia article on "gay speak". Enomist article on soundg gay.

Beyond Lispg: Co Swchg and Gay Speech Styl. Ask a Homo: Livg for the Lisp. Wele back to “Ask a Homo,” Outward’s no-judgement answer service for all your qutns on LGBTQ polics, culture, etiquette, language, and other queer nundms.

THE PREVALENCE OF LISPG GAY MEN

This week, Bryan Lowr n-sth-irs the li-sth-p and other elements of the “stereotypil gay manner of speakg”—and honey, ’s jt fabulo! Send your queri—for publitn—to slateoutward@, and please put “ASK A HOMO” the subject le.

Gaydar is a reified skill that nfirms the existence of a gay speech muny, but n terme a speaker's membership? Many people thk that they n regnize a gay man based on his speech. In other words, they believe that they have a gaydar.

GAY PCH, LISP?

However, as a gay man, I thk of gaydar not so much as a tool for intifyg one’s orientatn, but as a meang and discrimatory weapon ed to ntrast sexual and social differenc. For my class project Language US Society, I wanted to qutn the nature of gaydar and trace s origs beyond jt the perceptn of the speaker. Essentially, gaydar is the abily to tect an dividual’s sexual orientatn.

The key to unrstandg gaydar is the telemunitn ncept of “radar, ” which is fed as “a radtermatn system based on the parison of reference signals wh rad signals reflected or retransmted, om the posn to be termed” (ITU Rad Regulatns, 2013).

GAY LISP

Gaydar borrows the functns of receivg and parg signals and reifi the skill of intifyg sexual orientatn to an operatnal tool. Hence, the technil fn of gaydar is a “system based on the parison of reference signals wh language reflected or retransmted, om the posn to be termed, ” where the posn to be termed ultimately translat to inty. Jt like a radar, an operatnal gaydar reli on the reference signals and the static background of the receiver.

A historil example of this is what lguists ll the onted “s” sound that is typilly characterized as a lisp, also known as the “gay lisp” (Mack and Munson 2012). Instead of intifyg the onted “s” as a lguistic variable, listeners equently thk of as an x of non-normative behavr such as a speech fect or homosexualy. This associatn between language and behavr puts speakers g this variable a double bd: they are perceived eher to have a speech fect or to be gay—wh both perceptns rryg negative nnotatns.

Moreover, gaydar self is not a reliable system bee the stereotypil featur of gay speech n be cross-xil wh other social tegori.