Gay Speech

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that gay speech, although very common, is a learned trait among gay males and that it can be turned on and off, or up and down, when the person is put in different situations such as around other gay men, around girls, or around straight men. Through reviewing prior research, conducting experiments, and speaking from personal experience, the author of the paper views the ways in which gay males speak, and how individuals perceive this specific stereotype in order to classify men as gay or straight. The paper also includes an appendix of gay speech examples.

Outline:
Introduction
Review of the Literature
Main features of Gay Language:
Methodology
Analysis
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Originally published in the Economist, "Sounding Gay" is an article that researches the characteristics of "gaydar." "Gaydar" is a coined phrase that, according to urban dictionary.com, is "A sense that allows for someone to detect homosexuality in another." This article relates the lisp of a man to that of being a homosexual. It also says in the information that this is a trend in North American, and not necessarily a world trend (sounding gay). Some North American gay males pronounce sibilants* *using more sibilation, hissing and prolongation. The article states that these sibilates are also a prominent feature of Quebec French. * A study that is observed in this article is that of Rudolph Gaudio. He took four gay and four straight men and had them record a dry excerpt from Harvey Fierstein's play about gay life. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bowen, C. (2002). Beyond lisping: Code switching and gay speech styles. http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/codemix.htm.
• Christiansen, Rosalee, Ken Bleile, and Angela Burda. "How Do Gay Men Perceive Their Speech and Overall Communication?" 12 Nov. 2007.
• Clark, Joe. "Sounding Gay." 7 May 2001. <http://joeclark.org/soundinggay.html>.
• Crist, Sean. "Duration of Onset Consonants in Gay Male Stereotyped Speech." U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 4.3 (1997): 53-70.
• Gaudio, R. (1994) "Sounding Gay: Pitch Properties in the Speech of Gay and Straight Men." American Speech

More papers on Gay Speech:

• Descriptive Essay # 105180 : "Gay Speech, not Hate Speech"
• Analytical Essay # 134675 : "Gay Speech"
• Essay # 5019 : "Hate Speech"

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