• Question: Why is it that deaf people talk in a different way to those who can hear?

    Asked by thedov to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi @thedov
      Part of the way we learn things is by copying other people. This is definitely true with language. If we can’t hear what we’re trying to say, we can’t correct our mis pronunciations.

      This is a bit of why deaf people talk differently to people who can hear.

      Damien and Tim study language, they might have more info, but I hope this helps!

    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi @thedov

      I agree with Suzi. To learn the speech sounds of language you need to be able to correct the position of your mouth, lips and tongue based on what sounds you hear yourself make. As a deaf person you can see the position of the mouth and lips, but you can’t see what people are doing with their tongue. So you sounds deaf people make end up being quite different because they don’t know where to put their tongue to make the right sounds, although they may try to match the lip and mouth shapes for words. If you try it yourself you will find it is very hard to make the same sounds as someone else if you can’t hear them, but only see their mouths.

      I answered another question on deafness that you may be interested in:
      http://ias.im/58.2312

      I hope that helps explain it.

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