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A gay lisp is actually not a lisp but refers to stereotypical speech attributes assigned to and sometimes seen in gay males. Image File history File links Information_icon. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For other articles with similar names, see Gay (disambiguation). ... The shield and spear of the Roman God Mars are often used to represent the male sex In heterogamous species, male is the sex of an organism, or of a part of an organism, which typically produces smaller, mobile gametes (spermatozoa) that are able to fertilise female gametes (ova). ...

Several speech features are stereotyped as markers of gay male identity: careful pronunciation, wide pitch range, high and rapidly changing pitch, breathy tone, lengthened fricative sounds, and pronunciation of /t/ as /ts/ and /d/ as /dz/ (affrication). Some researchers report that North American gay men tend to pronounce sibilants (/s/, /z/, /ʃ/, and the like) with assibilation — more sibilation, hissing, or stridency. ^{[citation needed]} However, other demographic groups also use assibilation and many people speak with lisps. Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Africation is a sound change by which a stop consonant is changed to an affricate. ... A sibilant is a type of fricative, made by speeding up air through a narrow channel and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth. ... Assibilation is the introduction of sibilance to a sound, to produce a sibilant consonant. ... A sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel towards the sharp edge of the teeth. ... Hiss may be a phonetic element of a sibilant consonant, or of a lisp a verb close in meaning to whisper a noise characteristic of some snakes, or a different noise made for example by a cat an onomatopeic word for some noises, such as the release of air brakes...

A study by Rudolf Gaudio investigated claims that people can identify gay males by their speech and that these listeners use pitch range and fluctuation in deciding. Gaudio found that listeners could identify gay male speakers, but that there were no convincing differences in pitch. In a similar study of female speakers, Birch Moonwomon found listeners could not tell lesbian speakers from heterosexual speakers.^{[citation needed]}

Some analysts say gay people speak with an affected accent, as a way of signalling their identity and affiliation with the gay subculture, or a way to express femininity.^{[citation needed]} Still others suggest that the accent stems from marginalization.^{[citation needed]} As understood in sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a distinct set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part. ...

See also

• Gaydar
• Gay stereotyping
• Lisp
• Swish (slang)

Gaydar (a portmanteau of gay and radar) is the intuitive ability to determine whether another person is gay or bisexual. ... Gay stereotyping is the common misperception that all gay men either talk with a lisp or in a high pitched voice, dress in chic clothes, know broadway showtunes by heart, are easily scared or unable to defend themselves, and/or act in other feminine ways. ... A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. ... Swish is effeminate behaviour and interests (camp), emphasized and sanctioned (Kleinberg 1978), in pre-Stonewall gay male communities. ...

External resources

• Encyclopedia article on "gay speak"
• Economist article on sounding gay
• Beyond Lisping: Code Switching and Gay Speech Styles
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