People know if you're gay by the way you pronounce your vowels!

Listeners were generally unable to tell the orientation of the speaker using just the first letter, for example just the “m” sound in “mass.” However, using the first two letters, “ma” in “mass,” accuracy went up to 75%.

- Link

The one sound that threw the listeners for a loop was the letter "s." When the subjects they heard the "s" sound, whose lisping is part of the stereotyped portrayal of gay speech, they seemed more likely to rank the person as gay. So, while they picked out the gay speakers correctly, they also tended to incorrectly pick the straight speakers.

- Link


What do you think about all of this?

I think that many gay people try to fit in with the "gay culture" where this silly type of speech is the norm.

I have known gay people who don't talk like this at all, and actually get annoyed by people that do. I also knew one that used to talk "normally" and then once he came out, he began talking like this immediately.

It's just a show for most. Whether to fit it, or shove their sexuality in your face, I think it's silly.

Sounds about right. some homos speak normal but about 95% sound different, almost like a accent.

Personally I thought It would be the S's! Sssssssseeeee?

reply to post by arpgme


How odd. I didn't think speech had a sexual orientation.

I wish they had made the recordings available, I'd like to hear them and see if I can understand what they mean. How can a someone tell just by sounds if a person is gay?

hehehe there are other signs too that makes people know you're gay, just ask George Michael.

reply to post by James1982


i would have to agree. seems to be a learned behavior. I imagine it developed by trying to speak more feminine, and became it's own accent

It kinda like how some punk rockers (posers) try to sound british.

Well with me they first noticed it when I shrieked: "Toe-gah Par-tei, toe-gah Pa-rtei", instead of "Toga party, toga party!"

It's quite strange though, because with me and some other gay men, there is difference in English usage and pronunciation, and the hand movements.
Although I've always lived in SA, people ask me about my "British" or "Australian" accent.

Maybe as Sting put it: "I'm an Englishman in New York".

That's all very subjective, and it's not a general rule.
I also think it's partly picked up from a certain scene.
Even if there is a difference to gay speech centers, it is unsure whether this is biologically determined or acquired.

Nevertheless, from the documentary The Making of Me the gay subject is put through a test which shows his language center equal (and in his case above) that of heterosexual women. This far above the average language proficiency for straight men.

Absolute crap.

How one speaks, unless they have an underlying physical problem, is a learned behaviour. One's sexual orientation is NOT learned but genetic. The two are not related biologiocally.

I know lots of people who are gay and some do speak with a different tone or manner, what you might call "camp". But others I know do not have any vowel changes or fricative differences.

If someone, based on the society and media influence, choose to speak differently then that's their choice.

But how you pronounce your allophones of a phoneme is no way to determine if someone is gay.

Hell, might as well go back to reading tea leaves while tapping on the bumps of your skull!

How about "study shows 75% of people recognize the vowels in the 'campy gay style' of speaking"?

How about a study that looks at what percentage of gay people actually adopt this style of speech?

This study has so many flaws.

Originally posted by halfoldman

Although I've always lived in SA, people ask me about my "British" or "Australian" accent.

The reason for this is that most people are very ignorant. The SA accent sounds a lot like British or Australian accent if you aren't familiar with it. The first person I met from SA sounded Scottish to me, at first.

The rest I don't know, but this in particular has nothing to do with your sexual orientation.

Originally posted by noonebutme
Absolute crap.

Not absolute crap.

Whether by intent or not, some gay people *DO* speak gay.

And don't go on about it being discrimination or bigotry, far out, if they didn't camp it up themselves so much, it wouldn't be mentioned.

And as another poster said, some don't - but you don't get very many heterosexual males walking around like this:



A long time ago I think it was on the phil donahue show, sooo long ago now, someone asked why do gay people speak differently. He was hounded into the cracks on the floor for daring to say such a thing.

And still it happens.

Rejoice gay people, embrace your uniqueness, but dare a heterosexual man say it, BASH HIM WITH VERBALS..

In my opinion, the 'campy' gay accent is a choice. A chosen way of speaking. It's a dialect native to no where, and is a complete fabrication. I've never even heard of a gay man (and I say man, because lets face it, gay women aren't really known to use that 'campy' accent) proclaim that he speaks that way naturally, and if I did, I would consider them a liar. I've never heard a pre-mature child speak that way either (even the kids considered 'queer' when growing up). And I've known gay men who speak without such dialect as well.

This fabricated dialect is no different from the way 'gangbangers' or 'gangstas' choose to speak imo.
(its "fifty" not "fiddy")

Personally, it actually irritates me that gays choose to speak this way, when and if they are the same people who take up to the streets in protests for gay rights. I don't think gays deserve to be treated differently, or to be segregated from the rest of society. But by choosing to segregate themselves by differing themselves by means of false dialect, they really aren't helping their cause. And I say that because dialects are specific to region, a clear and distinct way of separating cultures and groups of people.


Keep in mind, I mean no disrespect to the gay community. This is only my opinion, with no 'scientific' research to conclude my opinion, which I have a right to have, just as you may have the right to disagree with me. Gay or not, I love all people just the same. (god I sound like a hippie sometimes).

I'd say it deserves more research.

What is for sure is that gays once had a patois "language" called Polari in Britain.
In SA we had a similar code called "Gayle", which is still very much in use.
The original point was to evade "Priscilla" (the police) before 1994, when it was all illegal.
So a sentence might be:
"I had too much Dora (drink) before I spied the Wendy (white homosexual) smoking a Cilla (cigarette) with the Chlora (colored homosexual) who bought the Gina (joint) and puffed it with a Natalie (native/black), until we ditched it when Betty Bangles (the cops) came along, but they only wanted some Erica (censored)".

Here is some Polari from the film Velvet Goldmine:
Varda that dish!


Well, if gay men have enlarged, feminized speech centers, that is quite significant.
But what is a "gay man"?
Obviously gay men do not "own" same-sex behavior and desire.

Originally posted by halfoldmanBut what is a "gay man"?
Obviously gay men do not "own" same-sex behavior and desire.

I would say I agree. And after further consideration I think it's really a way of speaking for people whom are 'queer' not specifically gay. 'Queer' as in the meaning the word had over 20 years ago, before it's automatic association with being homosexual. In my mind they 2 terms reflect 2 different behaviors, though that doesn't mean a person cannot behave both ways.

reply to post by Lighterside

How do you know it is always a choice?

That really annoys me as well.
I'll be talking and having a drink, and suddenly the guy I'm talking to says: "Stop it now with your gay accent".
Then I'm totally flabbergasted, because I don't know what he's talking about!

I find that homophobic.
They say they don't mind gay people; they just mustn't act recognizably gay.
Man, that is so hurtful, and I've heard it from a family member.
Must I always put on an act; can I never relax and be myself?

Accents are weird.
I recall in my first year we had a student who came back from the US, and she spoke in an US accent.
Everybody said she was so irritating, and doing it on purpose.
Then she broke down in tears and left the course.
What she thought was a privilege turned into a liability because of jealous people.
And I know now, she really couldn't help it.

In fact, some people knock their heads and speak in another accent.

reply to post by halfoldman


I agree with you entirely. I don't even think it is a "gay" speech dialect/accent because I know many straight men who speak in the same manner and it is the exact same for the female gender too.

Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by Lighterside

 

How do you know it is always a choice?

I do not know it's always a choice. I clearly stated that it's my opinion. I'm not a speech expert, and could very well be wrong.

Though I do know for a fact that I have met gay men who choose to accentuate the 'campy' accent and thicken it up when they feel like it. Meaning, sometimes they choose to sound 'more gay' than usual, and admittedly so.

reply to post by Lighterside

OK, fair enough.
I see straight people doing it too for humor all the time, or even ripping off machismo.

I think Western gay culture is very much based in irony and humor.
A kind of recognition that all the world is constructed by actors, and really just a big stage.

I think it's more acceptable to satirize femininity.
When the excesses of masculinity are satirized, things get a bit scary.
So society is happier believing that frivolous femininity is an act, but masculinity must always be "essentialist".
After all, God was a Man.