Tuesday, March 18, 2008

International Male

I was talking to my buddy Keehnan yesterday about the Spaniards' Lisp (I like how I made that sound like Terrifying and Contagious disease. "Next on 20/20, The Spaniards' Lisp! It may already be in a household NEAR YOU!!"). Do you know what I'm talking about though? Spaniards pronounce their "sssss" sound more like a "thhhhh" sound. It really bothers me. I bought some "Learn Spanish!" tapes at a garage sale last year, but I can't use them because they're all, "Repeat after me. Me llamo Thilvio! Thoy de Barrrrthelona!!" And I can't repeat after him, because I am too busy laughing.



Anyway, we were talking about this, and we got to wondering, do gay Spaniards lisp extra hard? Or do they lisp the same as straight Spaniards? Also, do gay French men lisp? What about Russians? Or Somalians? Or Guamanians? Is the lisp of the stereotypical flamboyantly gay man universal, or is it indigenous to English speakers? Wikipedia is not helping. As Keehnan said, "That article is a stub-ass stub."

I am so curious, but I don't know how to get answers without offending anyone. So, my well-traveled readers, I ask you. Do you happen to know of any non-English speaking sterotypically flamboyant homosexual men who do/do not lisp in their native tongue? Or perhaps you have heard of some study about this that I may now Google?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have often wondered this myself! Although to be honest my experience in Spain, which include several nights of gay club "hopping" and almost all the Pedro Almodovar films, haven't produced any evidence of extra-lisping. I think TRULY flamboyant gay Spaniards are just delightfully effeminate and gesticulatory, fanning themselves dramatically under the hot Spanish sun.

(This picture came up when I google image searched "Spaniard".)

ALSO: The Spanish don't lisp all of their "s" sounds. In fact they don't lisp the letter "s" at all. They lisp the letter "c" and "z" when it is followed by an "e" or "i". So the lady on your tape would say "Yo soy de Barthhhhhhhelona". But if she were from Barcelona she'd probably be speaking Catalan and getting mad at you for making her teach Spanish. Those Spaniards and their crazy regionalism.

Chelsea said...

i'm not sure what the tape person actually said that sent me into fits. and this whole catalan thing only confuses me further.

when i google image searched "gay spaniard" the results were mainly pornographic. i have got to start enabling safe search!

monique said...

I don't know if gay Spaniards lisp extra hard. I was trying to think if I know of any Jamaican battyboys who lisp, but then again, I only know one. Well, two if you include Terry McMillan's RATHCLAAT ex-husband. Theen?