A talented speech therapist attended a science fiction convention with her sister, a longtime fan. The therapist observed something very like a fannish accent, a mode of discourse and a suite of physiological characteristics that are unique to fandom. After spending some time studying this phenomenon, the therapist returned to the convention to report on her findings. Here’s a fascinating Usenet thread discussing the presentation — are fans speciating?

We also speak in larger word groupings between breaths. This does notnecessarily mean that we speak faster; we just pause for a shorter timebetween words — except where there is punctuation. She pointed out thatwhen Teresa Nielsen Hayden said she came from Mesa, Arizona, Teresa actuallypronounced the comma by putting a slightly longer pause there, while mostmundanes would simply run the words together. Mundanes slur a lot ofconsonents that we pronounce individually. We use punctuation in our spokenutterances. Sometimes we even footnote.

What we say in those large word groupings is also different. We tend to usecomplete sentences, and complex sentence structure. When we pause, or say”uh”, it tends to be towards the beginning of a statement, as we formulatethe complete thought. The “idea” or “information” portion of a statement isparamount; emotional reassurance, the little social noises (mm-hmm) arereduced or omitted. We get to the heart of what we want to say — ifsomeone asks us how to do something we tell them, not leading up to itgently with “have you tried doing it this way?”

LinkDiscuss (Thanks, PNH and TNH!)