Tikrit University Journal for Humanities Vol. ( 14 ) No. ( 3 ) April ( 2007 ) A Comparative Study Between Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue Zaynab Abbudi Ali (M. A) English Department College of Education AL-Qadisaya University 1- Introduction Verbal communication is the only effective means of passing the speech quickly. There are many speech problems that can interfere the speakers's communication and lead to errors in speech production. Lisping and sliping are two speech problems that lead to errors in articulation. This study compares mainly between these two speech problems since many people confuse and can not distinguish between them. However, it also aims at specifying and classifying the difficulties of lispers and slipers in producing the speech sounds. Investigating these issues might serve those researchers who are interested in speech errors. 2-Definition of Lisping and Sliping Lisping, on one hand, refers to a defective production of one or more of the six sibilant consonant sounds [s , z , , , t , d ] ,usually caused by improper tongue placement or by abnormalities of the articulatory mechanism. The [s, z] are the most commonly involved consonant sounds (Nicolosi etal., 1978:124). Likewise, Hudan (2005:1) defines lisping as "a functional speech disorder that involves the inability to pronounce correctly one or more sibilant 15 A Comparative Study Between Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue Zaynab Abbudi Ali (M.A) consonant sounds like [s, z]". It is usually the speaker who slips substitutes the sound [ θ] for the sibilant sounds, for example, the word 'lisp' [l sp] is pronounced as 'lithp' [l θp]. Sometimes, lisping may refer to a disorted or mispronunciation of the speech sounds. However, it is found that many children lisp at certain stage of speech development especially when they lose their front primary teeth. Lisping is therefore sometimes called developmental phonetic disorder (Duchan, 2006:1) On the other hand, sliping is a kind of memory difficulties with words and sometimes it is referred to a 'word substitution (http://w.word.finding.com/about.w.f.htm.2006:4). It is interesting to note that slipers can produce regular sequence of speech, for example, the two words included in tongue slips, i.e., the word that contains the slip and the word that influences it are often found to belong to the same syntactic constituents or intonation rhyme unit (Crystal, 1987:262). 3-The Causes of Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue As a functional speech disorder, lisping has no clear known cause. It is often referred to as a speech delay of unknown origin. It is generally regarded that structural irregularities of the tongue, palate or teeth are not the main causes of this speech disorder. Thus, a child with no physical abnormality will develop a lisp. Besides that, this disorder can be developed when the child imitates another child or adult who lisps and the child has learned to say a sound or sounds the wrong way, and the incorrect pronunciation has become a habit. Tongue thrusting that refers to physiological behaviour may 16 Tikrit University Journal for Humanities Vol. ( 14 ) No. ( 3 ) April ( 2007 ) also cause lisping of the tongue. In this case, the tongue will flatten and thrust forward during swallowing and speaking (http://www.speechtx.com, 2004 :5). However, there are many reasons that cause this kind of disorder. In this regard, Duchan (2006:2) writes : Thumb sucking, overuse of pacifiers bottle feeding, and recurrent upper respiratory illnesses cause tongue thrusting . Thumbs (or fingers), artifical nipples, and pacifiers keep the tongue flat and do not allow the muscles of the tongue to develop in a normal fasion. When the child speaks, the tongue shoots forward, creating a lisp. Furthermore, the children sometimes try to talk while pacifiers is in their mouth and this may cause a reduced placement of the tongue for correct sound productions (Hudan, 2005:2). It is found that a child who has frequent upper respiratory infections may develop lisping because the tongue lays flat so that the child can breath through the mouth rather than the nose. So, when the child speaks, these sounds may be thick and distorted (Ibid.). In this respect, Duchan (2006:2) adds: Closing the mouth and teeth to make [s, z] sounds cuts off the breath, so children compensate by trying to speak without closing their mouths completely. Thus, a lisp develops. 17 A Comparative Study Between Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue Zaynab Abbudi Ali (M.A) Lisping is also associated with immature development when some children will adopt a lisp as a means of gaining attention (Ibid.). By contrast, many studies indicate that sliping has a psychological basis and it is a complicated mental process. In this respect, Shutter (2004:3) writes: It is a complicated mental processing which is happening entirely below the level of consciousness, so we're not aware of doing anything except when we hear ourselves saying something funny, and its all happening at such lighting speed that we're not aware of any time these steps are taking. Moreover, Sigmund Freud is the first person who studies sliping as a psychological data. He believes that "every slip was a consequence of deeper unconscious motivations that were allowed expression through such error". He also claims that "tongue slips resulted from repressed thoughts which are revealed by the particular errors which a speaker makes" (http://www.entcolumbiaorg/frenul.htm.2006:6 ). 4-The Major Characteristics of Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue Lisping is a functional speech disorder characterized by a substitution of the sound [θ] for the sibilant sounds. The following are four major types of lisping: 1- Interdental (frontal ) Lisp: It occurs when the speakers 's tongue protrudes between the front teeth and [s, z] are pronounced like 18 Tikrit University Journal for Humanities Vol. ( 14 ) No. ( 3 ) April ( 2007 ) [θ]. In this respect, Nicolosi et al. (1978 :124) state that the speaker substitutes [ θ] or [ð] sounds or approximations of these sounds for sibilant sounds due to abstruction of the narrow channel of air by placing the tongue tip too far forward either against the teeth or between the teeth, or by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridges instead of allowing it to be free. The words that contain voiceless alveolar fricative consonant [s] like 'soup' [su:p] and 'pass' [pæs] are pronounced as 'thoop' [θu:p] and 'path' [pæθ]. Gradually, words that contain alveolar fricative consonant [z] like 'zoo' [zu:] and 'easy' [i:zi] are pronounced as 'thoo' [θu:] and 'eeθy' [i:θi] (Bowen, 2004:4). 2- Dentalized Lisp: It occurs when the tongue pushes against the front teeth. Here, the speaker's tongue is touching the teeth (http://www.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article.htm.2006:3). Bowen (2004:1) states that "the speaker's production of [s, z] may sound muffled, or distinct or even have a bit of whistling sound associated with them". 3- Lateral Lisp: Differrent names are used for 'lateral lisp' like 'laterals'. 'lateralized', or 'lateral lisp'. Lateral lisp occurs when "the tongue position is very close to the normal position of [l] and the sound is made with the air-flow directed over the sides of the tongue" (http://www.babycenter.co.uk/refcap.htm1.2006:2). This sort of lisp is sometimes referred to as a 'slushy ess' or a 'slushy lisp' because of its production. A lateral lisp often sounds 'wet' or 'spitty'. The lateral lisp may be the result of dental malocclusion, e.g., 'shun' [n] for 'sun' [s n] and lateral lisp is sometimes the result of the cross-bite (upper teeth are not meeting the lower 19 A Comparative Study Between Lisping and Sliping of the Tongue Zaynab Abbudi Ali (M.A) teeth) that allows lateral escape of air and sound distortion. Besides that, some individuals lateralize both the affricates [t, d] and the fricatives [s, z, , ] (Duchan , 2006 :5). 4- Palatal Lisp : 'Palatal s' and 'palatal lisp' are different names for this sort of lisp. Palatal lisp occurs when the speaker tries to produce the sound [s] and the middle part of the tongue touches the soft palat or roof of the mouth (Ibid.). Sometimes, children and adults who lisp may dentalize the sounds [s, z, ,d , , t ] or produce them with lateral air escape or with excessive palate to tongue contact (Bowen, 2004:5). However, it is recognized that interdental and dentalized production of [s, z] are both types of frontal lisp and both are seen as a normal stage in speech development (Bowen, 2004:2), while lateral and palatal lisps are not regarded as a part of the normal development and the speech of the speakers should be assessed by speech-language pathologist (SLP) without delay. Bowen (Ibid.) summarizes the normal speech development for some substituted consonant sounds of the child's speech in Table (1) as follows: The Consonant Examples The Age Sounds l=w 'Ladder' pronounced as Normal until 4 years 'wadder' l=j 'ladder' pronounced as = = 4 = 'yadder' Frontal/interdental lisp 'sun' pronounced as 'thun' = = 4 = r=w 'rabbit' pronounced as = = 5 = 'wabbit' 20 Tikrit University Journal for Humanities Vol. ( 14 ) No. ( 3 ) April ( 2007 ) Voiced th=v 'them' pronounced as = = 8 = 'vem' Voiceless th=f 'thumb' pronounced as = = 8½ ''fum' = Lateral lisp 'slushy' s-sound deviates from the norm Palatal lisp 'soup' pronounced as = = = 'choup' = On the contrary, sliping contains many categories that can be classified into major and secondary categories. The major ones can be summarized as follows: 1- Sound Errors: They refer to a substitution of sounds between words, e.g., 'snow flurries' [sn u fl ri s] is pronounced as 'flow snurries' [fl u sn ri s].