# Need help writing with a lisp!



## Xadera (May 19, 2009)

*Need help writing with a lisp*

Speech impediments are a pain in the ass XD

I want to give one of my characters a lisp, but I'm kinda stumped as to how ^^; I've tried Youtubing some videos of people with lisps, but I still can't figure out how to change the sounds to text. I considered adding an extra 's' or two whenever there's any 's' but that doesn't quite cover all the sounds. Like when there's a 'th', there should be some sort of extra enunciation, and soft c's are also extra s-ey. And even with the extra s's, it can be mistaken as having a serpentine tongue and lots of hissing rather than an average lisp. 

So, what sort of 'filter' should I apply that would help to really portray a lisp? Special characters and formatting are optional, since I'm doing this in rtf (but readers on Yiffstar would be a bit screwed ^^; ). Links and stories that are good references would also be helpful.


----------



## Xadera (May 19, 2009)

With a bit more research, it depends on the lisp. Interdental (tongue on front teeth) can lead to lots of s's being replaced with th's. Palatal (tongue on palate) would probably lead to a lot of s's being extended (resulting in the hissing snake sound). Lateral makes all s's into sh's. And there's probably a lot of mixing between them all, varying according to how thick the lisp is. 

So, for instance "This sounds fantastic" might be lisped as "Thisth thoundsth fantathtic." But, is that still intelligible when it comes to reading it? I also don't want the character to come off as being Daffy Duck, so leaving some s's alone might be more suitable...

And I still feel like there's a bit missing. Like the "f" should be replaced with "ph", but is that much of a change? And is there anything else I'm missing?


----------



## Aegidia (May 19, 2009)

I think the way you write the lisp depends A) on how serious your story is and B) on how hard it is for other characters to understand them. For example, Terry Pratchett's Igors all speak with a terrible lisp, sometimes making it hard for others to understand them and causing comments when they 'forget' to lisp. However, if your story is very serious, you might not want the Daffy Duck impersonation you already mentioned  I think consistency is key. You can always have people occassionally commenting on the lisp outside the dialogue. (to take Pratchett as an example again, most people specifically try to avoid having an Igor say 'scissors') If you write from multiple viewpoints, maybe one character will be terribly annoyed by the lisp and thus it will show up in writing, while someone else may have no trouble understanding it so for them it would 'write' normally? I don't know if that would work, but who knows.

And I don't think f-->ph is a necessary change at all. I think it would just be annoying.


----------



## Xadera (May 19, 2009)

Aegidia said:


> I think the way you write the lisp depends A) on how serious your story is and B) on how hard it is for other characters to understand them. For example, Terry Pratchett's Igors all speak with a terrible lisp, sometimes making it hard for others to understand them and causing comments when they 'forget' to lisp. However, if your story is very serious, you might not want the Daffy Duck impersonation you already mentioned  I think consistency is key. You can always have people occassionally commenting on the lisp outside the dialogue. (to take Pratchett as an example again, most people specifically try to avoid having an Igor say 'scissors') If you write from multiple viewpoints, maybe one character will be terribly annoyed by the lisp and thus it will show up in writing, while someone else may have no trouble understanding it so for them it would 'write' normally? I don't know if that would work, but who knows.


 
My story isn't serious at all, but it's not an all-out cartoon either. In my case, it's supposed to be the kinda cute lisp that children or people with retainers often have. And it's from the perspective of someone who generally understands what others say, but has very broken english in her own mind (she's kinda a mute herself, at the moment). And neither of them are as bad as the creature that speaks complete gibberish, whom only one other character understands. So... there's screwed up language all around XD 



> And I don't think f-->ph is a necessary change at all. I think it would just be annoying.


 
Ahh, alright. I'll avoid that then.


----------



## AriusEx (May 24, 2009)

My recommendation: don't change the spelling of the dialogue at all.  If the character gets a lisp when they get angry, in the same way that some people start speaking a different language, than mention that when its appropriate.  Often times adjusting the spelling to fit an accent or some other eccentricity only serves to frustrate readers.


----------



## ShÃ nwÃ ng (May 25, 2009)

Make sure you set it the reader's mind early on that the character has a lisp. If it's a detail that you really want to stick out whenever the character speaks, give a little more than "Billy Joe Bob Brown has a lisp when he talks" when describing the character. That should help you pull off the lisp a little better. Maybe even include during that description how people typically react to his or her lisp.


----------



## Xadera (May 25, 2009)

AriusEx said:


> My recommendation: don't change the spelling of the dialogue at all.


 
Mmm... I'm rather hesitant to go this route. Whenever I read that "so-and-so speaks with accent X", I might read with the accent for the next couple lines, but after a while it just blends in with everyone else. And repeating the fact over and over so the reader could remember is even more annoying. Changing the dialogue itself seems like the most effective and efficient way of portraying accents. Such as reverting to romantic english with the "thy art doing thou'st best" or whatever, it really helps with the feel of the character. You'd notice accents clearly in real life, so why not in writing? Accents in real life can also be just as annoying XD



			
				Bowtoid_Obelisk said:
			
		

> Make sure you set it the reader's mind early on that the character has a lisp. If it's a detail that you really want to stick out whenever the character speaks, give a little more than "Billy Joe Bob Brown has a lisp when he talks" when describing the character. That should help you pull off the lisp a little better. Maybe even include during that description how people typically react to his or her lisp.


 
Ahh, that's a very good point. Combining the above advice; making note of how the character speaks (like "He has such a cute lisp!") will make it sound differently in the reader's mind. And by adjusting the dialogue appropriately; when readers com across the mis-enunciated text they'll be subtly reminded of the "cuteness" (or whatever should be associated with the speech), and thus won't forget nor be annoyed as easily.


----------

