Speech and Eloquency

[Scarecrow]

DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!! RAGE!! ANGER!! FURY!!! DISGUST! GRAAAAAARRGH!!

...Now that that's over and done with, I shall explain myself.

I can't talk properly. Whenever I stop and think something out, it comes out completely twisted.

Ex. I mean to say "Intruiging... It seems as though the specimen has adopted new colouration in correlation with its temperature and situation, as opposed to the comman belief of backdrop."

...It comes out as this.

"Intruiging! Lizardy-fink's gone and swapped scaley-tints again... Temp-wise, not s'roundin' wise, yes?"

Even worse- when stressed, I tend to speak really fast, get stuck in words, forget grammar (even though I revise the sentance after a couple seconds) and worst of all, incorporate words from languages noone knows, because they're ones I've written up for my world.

Ex.

"W-w-wa-wah-weh... WELL. That's the ticket! ...WELL. I'm n-not really sure that's awful smart of ya... Might end up kzarkh-jalad nksh- Nnng... Didn'a mean thattun, kiddo. Buddy? Odeer, I don't remm-mm-remed-remp-remdem- DAMMIT!! ...Remember. That's it... I don't... REMEMBER, exactly."

It gets worse. Half the time, I stop in mid-sentance, because I have become side-tracked by something floating around in my head.

Ex.

"Greetings, everyone! I have excellent news, and-----frilled lizard? ...What was... Hm. ... ... ... Hiya, guys!! Everything's hunky-dory over here, I promise!!" followed by a bemused grin.

...It's frustruating. It really is. The spoken word, lovely as it may be, is quite possibly one of my greatest difficulties... Especially as it doesn't even nearly encompass the things I need to express sometimes. So, if I'm at a loss for words, I speak in goblin, or elvish, or Eldritch... Whatever language holds the words I need. This make people think I'm even nuttier than before.

...XD And yes, I did base Viktor's speech patterns after my own.

[Daybreak]

I know what you mean, Scare. My problem is pronunciation and similar words. I've get a damn good vocabulary, if I do say so meself, but things get switched when I'm talking quickly. I'll say "infliction" instead of "inflection" and things like that. I usually end up repeating myself a lot that way. It's not exactly a stutter, but it's more like I stumble over my own tongue sometimes.

As for the language thing.... I do a bit of that. For example, I tend to pronounce 'v' as 'w' in certain words (from Latin), and I'll use slang, words, and references from places nobody else understands. Usually TV shows, comics, or fantasy novels, but lately I've been talkingabout things in terms of roleplaying mechanics.

On top of that, I pick up speech habits easily. So if I'm not paying attention I slip into terrible accents, use me instead of my, start calling people odd pet names, and - yes, I do this in real life - say 'youse'. Basically I'm a language klutz. It doesn't stop me from communicating, but I come off as pretty dense sometimes...

[DarkfireTaimatsu]

Man, an' I thought I had language problems.

If you've ever talked with me at length on some chat program or read a fairly long post by me, that's more or less how I really talk (or it would be if I wasn't so bleeding shy).

It's all full of cute noises, weird contractions, sound effects, silly-adorable terms, deliberately bad grammar, foreign words, pop-culture references, stereotyped accents, and meeps. I'm slowly degenerating into an imp, at least verbally. What fun.

[Nakis]

Hrm, the same thing tends to occur with me.

I have a decent vocabulary, but the moment I get stressed or try to talk fast...yeah. I end up switching words and placing them midsentance and saying the wrong words and my inflections go way off. I also take on an accent which somehow changes without my consent when I get aggitated. Makes for a great way to meet new people. If I don't scare them away from going from American to English to what little German I know to Amercian to my own little language, with a spritzing of various vowels that don't need to go there and for no apparent reason I mentioned hamsters and world domination and made up three new words at once.

A poor memory doesn't help, either.

Edit: Reading the final paragraph of yours again made me think that we'd have the most interesting conversation.

Third Edit: As a sidenote, thinking for ten seconds and saying things slowly tends to help me. It also helps if I give simple answers. Having flowery speech is a nice thing (Given enough time to sort things out and learn the syntax, I could live in Vo Mimbre well enough), but go with simplicity and give simple sentances. Less confusion.

You may also be my good twin, considering how this works.

[lordofcheese]

Generally my pronunciation skills are pretty good, but whenever I have to say something important to a group of more than twenty strangers things go down hill quickly: my tempo speeds up, my volume goes down, I develop a small stutter, and start dropping prefixes and simple words like "the" and "of" from my vocabulary. Any ideas that might help?

[Angel--of--Music]

For me, the one word I have SO much trouble with, is ASK. It takes serious concentration for me to say ASK. It usually comes out at something along the lines of "I assed her and she said yes."

Very embarising if you're talking to someone important.

[Deraymou]

Well I gotta say I'm pretty well spoken at least half the time. It was really troublesome as a kid cuz my vocabulary exceeded all my peers. I think that's part of the reason I had no friends til high school, communication barriers.
In an unrelaxed environment, I tend to be extremely proper. English Gentleman proper. Though if I'm relaxed I tend ta use alot of slang and accents. Hmyes, I like speaking with random accents....

Of course at any time, I have a few key issues in speaking...

My problem is pronunciation and similar words.

This is the main one. In fact the only one I can think of at the moment!

Whenever I go to say (especially when reading) pseudo, I always say suede-o
(and you wouldn't think that this above issue would cause much trouble, but I tend to use the term pseudo ALOT)

Oh, I also slur syllables together its apparently caused from my pronounced New England accent (apparently every tri-state area has its own accent). Its pretty terrible, cuz I'll be trying to say something like 'horror', and it comes out as one syllable, which sounds like 'whore'
I literally have to stop myself and say the word while thinking about it.

[{×ÏÑk§tÊ®88×}]

i have trouble with my "th" sounds.i also use alot of of slang.

so instead of:

"i've been thinking about you!'

i'll say:

"I'MA FINKING ABOUT YOU!"

and then if i get nervous:

"I'MA FIN-F-F-F-F-F-FFINKING I'MA FINKING-FINKING OF YOU!!!"

it very embarrassing at my age to be doing that.as a result i get called retarded.
i hate it.i should see a speech pathologist or something..

[ZeroVX]

I'll admit that I have a bit of a lisp, so half the time when I say something to my mom, I have to repeat myself, which I hate.

Either that, or I talk too fast, or too loud.....ugh.

[{×ÏÑk§tÊ®88×}]

i talk too loud most/all of the time.
and so.

"OH MY GOD!SHE'S PREGNANT?"
that actually happened.

[Raccoo]

I tend to not talk that much, although I do enjoy talking when I think I have something interesting to say (usually a story about what happened to me). But since the people I'm around (my brothers) talk so much I can hardly get a word in edge-wise, and then I end up forgetting what I'm saying and mis-saying what I meant to say (like yesterday when I was trying to say something but my brother-in-law wouldn't shut up long enough to), and I ended up starting by saying,"Back to five minutes ago when we were talking about mormons not marrying outside of marriage." When I meant to say "...outside of their church." I do have some trouble pronouncing words, but not as badly as I used to when I was a kid. I end up repeating things sometimes because I'm trying to remember what I was talking about or to get people to shut up so I can say something. Like my brothers will be talking and pause for long enough for me to say two words, then they'll start talking and I'll say those two words again louder to get them to realize it's MY turn to speak.

I'm usually the one to try to calm down my brothers or friends and get them to be quiet.

I have somewhat of a country accent, not as bad as some people who live around here. And I don't say "ya'll" if I'm conscious. I'm not as verbose in speaking as in writing, it's harder to relay what I'm thinking, I might stutter or repeat myself, or start to get off topic and have to put myself back on. Also while I'm talking I'm constantly thinking about what effect what I'll say will have on those I'm talking to (usually around people I don't know well). When I have to get up in front of class to talk I talk faster (I think) and forget some of what I need to talk about. =\

I took speech lessons for a little while in elementary school because I had trouble pronouncing r's, sh's, and w's.

Which is worse, to be "axed" or "assed?"

[{×ÏÑk§tÊ®88×}]

assed.definatly.

[Angel--of--Music]

Hey, assed is my word XD