someone in a fanfic: s-stutters in embarrassment
me, closing the tab: sorry I must go
Unrealistic Stuttering: “S-sorry I-I d-d-didn’t m-mean t-to…”
Realistic Stuttering: “Sorry, I uh… I didn’t mean- I didn’t mean to do that…”
When people stutter, they usually reword what they’re saying as they speak, and subconsciously insert “filler words” such as “uh, like, you know,” and etc.
*puts on speech therapist hat*
ACTUALLY! It depends on why they are stuttering.
A Nervous Stutter results in what is called Mazing, or rewording the sentence. That is the classic “I, um… well I… look it’s just that… so we…” that @hellishhues is talking about. When someone is mazing their words you’re seeing a form of Speech Apraxia where the brain is having trouble forming verbal speech. This can be brought on by brain damage, memory loss, anxiety, nerves, and several other things.
The root cause of a nervous stutter is a disconnect between the mouth and the brain.
With this you will also sometimes see the classic “S-s-s-sorry…” especially if the person has been training to speak clearly and is now at a point of fatigue or stress where they are not mentally capable of forming the words.
The other kind of stutter is a Physical Stutter, sometimes referred to as slurring, and another facet of Speech Apraxia. This stutter is caused when the muscles of the mouth, tongue, and throat are physically unable to form certain sounds. This is most often seen in the very young and victims of brain trauma.
Sounds are acquired at different ages, so a 2-year-old will probably not be able to clearly pronounce certain words (which is why toddler sound so off when they’re written with developed dialogue). These mis-pronunciations are sometimes referred to as lisping, but only if the sounds are run together. If the person starts and restarts the sound because they got it wrong, it can also sound like the classic sound stutter.
But it all depends on why the character is stuttering!
Do they have Speech Apraxia, Audio Processing Disorder, muscle dysfunction, or another medical reason to stutter? (1)
Are they stuttering because of anxiety, stress, or fatigue? (2)
Does the stutter stem from intoxication or blood loss? (3)
All of those will sound different!
1 – Will have mazing, repeated sound stutters, and be the classic stutter that annoys OP.
2 – This is where you’ll see the repetition stutter, mazing, rephrasing, and filler words.
3 – This is where you are more likely to see starts and stops and slurring of words.
My mum has apraxia and I just wanted to say that’s one of the most concise and clear ways I’ve seen it explained, thank you!
Also, if you have that thing where you start trembling or shaking easily when your pulse quickens (I don’t know what it’s called but it’s common in people with certain mild heart conditions such as mine), it affects your speech and causes what OP and the first reblogger find “unrealistic” stuttering.
There’s also another type that I don’t know what it’s called but when I stutter I end up sort of “trapped” repeating a word.
Like, a sentence might end up coming out “I then I w-went went went went went went went went-” *rip myself away from the repetition and take a deep breath* “I then went to the store.”
On a bad day the repetition will happen again on the same word when I try again and I’ll have to reword the sentence, but usually it only takes one time to fix it.
Reblogging with some more hopefully helpful examples!
So I knew someone irl that had a fairly mild nervous stutter, but they actually did all 3 things: the mazing/repetition, filler words or a full-on stall, and the j-j-j-jittery stutter. And sometimes all in the same sentence.
So here were some of my observations:
1) The j-j-j-jittery stutter would ONLY ever happen at the beginning of a sentence or response, and it was almost always on vowel sounds. “I”, “And”, “Every”, etc.
2)
It was also so fast that sometimes it was hard to catch, like a trill – as they would then rush right into the next few words after getting past it. In fact, if I were to use it in dialogue, I wouldn’t even write out the “I-i-i-i” stutter, but instead describe them as tripping over the word.
3) The stalling over a block in the middle of a sentence was by far the most noticeable part of their stutter, and also tended to happen after a repeated or filler word. Also happened most frequently on vowel sounds.
4) They usually closed their eyes when getting past a stall, and laughed it off after, or repeated the whole sentence entirely.
5) Sometimes touching their arm would also help get them past a stall.
6) Most of their stuttering happened either over the phone, when meeting new people, or when teaching/imparting a new concept – rarely in casual conversation.
7) All things considered, their stutter pattern still seemed natural enough that most people (including me) didn’t realize they had one until they mentioned it. Friendo was a good sport and a lovely person, and sometimes stutters aren’t as noticeable as you think.
I know every case is different, but hopefully these observations help someone out there when writing this type of stutter in a character!
Also, here are some fun things about people who have stammers: a lot of the time if you cuss a lot, they don’t. I knew a guy in the military who’d swear a ton on the radio because it made his speech more clear. Funny thing to explain to his C.O.
Thank you for this. I stuttered a lot when I was younger, though I’ve (mostly) grown out of it. I’d mostly get stuck on words, especially if they had a hard sound, where i’d repeat the same sound, though I’d also repeat words sometimes too.
My brains goes faster than my mouth, and considering how fast I talk that’s an accomplishment.
Also if someone is stuttering do not ask them to think about what they’re trying to say. I know full well what I want to say, I just am having trouble communicating and you’re making it worse.