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Q & A : Whence The Whistle?Q. Can there be a nutritional or physical reason for the sudden onset of a whistling S in an adults speech? A. The answer is almost certainly physical rather than nutritional, unless the sufferer happened to eat a cavity-causing diet that led to dental work. The flaw in pronouncing a sibilant S, which speech therapists call sigmatism, can follow even minor changes to the way the tongue aligns with the teeth. As a result of either too small a gap or too large a gap between the biting edges of the front teeth, the air forced through the gap in pronouncing the S sound can produce an extra whistle. In an adult, a newly whistling S is not a result of an inborn defect in the speech mechanism or an error in speaking. Rather, it results from a subtle shift in the mouth that makes old speech habits produce new sounds, speech therapists say. The unwanted whistling or pronounced hissing is especially evident when normal speech is amplified by a microphone. Speech exercises can help the speaker adjust to the new alignment and retrieve the accustomed sound. But dentists and dental surgeons should be aware of the risk in tinkering with the intersection where the tongue touches the teeth. Readers are invited to submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to question@nytimes.com. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationWalter M. Schirra Jr., Astronaut, Dies at 84...The Curious Cook : When Science Sniffs Around the Kitchen... Court Allows Scientists to Work at NASA Until Trial Over Background Checks... Life as We Know It... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Q & A : Whence The Whistle? |
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