Mumble More Clearly Please!

As the radio spot promotion has repeated for years, we are judged by the words we use and how we use them. Specifically, our talk includes the vocabulary we choose and the precision with which we enunciate those words so that others can understand us.

Within my lifetime, there has been a shift in how our society values clarity of our speech.

Decades ago, most schools required students to present recitations before the class with the learning objective of speaking clearly. Parents monitored their children and scolded them when they mumbled. Clarity was a standard goal to be achieved by all.

Fast talk may confuse

Recently I inquired about cell phone options at a mall kiosk.

Juliano, the young salesman, gave me a wonderful example of "speed talk" as he rattled off the various options of three brands of wireless services. He seemed to feel good about his ability to race through his pitches, barely stopping to take an occasional breath. Unfortunately for him, he was confusing me, not helping me understand, and giving off an impression that he didn't want to spend much time with me (lest another customer stop by the kiosk.)

I stopped him twice to clarify his information, but eventually I gave up, accepted a handful of brochures, and departed. His rapid-fire speech made me feel uncomfortable, even distrustful.

Result? No sale.

Sloppy speech is hard to understand

Mumbling, slurring words, and fuzzy enunciation are other difficulties you can often observe. Sometimes with store clerks and fast-food counter people, but also with telemarketers and order-takers on the other end of toll-free phone numbers and people in general.

Although I am quite skilled at guessing what a mumbler is saying, I still have difficulty and have to ask them to repeat. (One pleasant exception -- the airline customer service people. These folks almost always speak clearly.)

Still other clarity problems are caused by filler sounds such as "ums" and "ahs", and plentiful filler words such as "like" and "you know." Also, by too little volume in the voice, which requires the listener a good deal of effort to hear.

Causes of confusing talk?

What factors cause people to develop unintelligible speech habits? My sense is that one of the most influential factors is group identity (to belong to a group one should dress like them, act like them, and talk like them.).

The appearance of being casual, or cool, or fashionable might be had with "valley girl" speech or with hip-hop banter. The quest for group identity trumps other values. Better to be unintelligible but cool than clear and un-cool.

Sometimes people just don't know any better.

At a recent church service, I saw a teenager stroll in with his cap on - sideways. The cap was clearly part of his "costume," and he didn't take it off throughout the service. Nor did his father ask him to take it off.

I think they just didn't know what was appropriate. This is also true of a student or employee who responds with baggy-pantsed phrases and sentences that, like their shoes, are not laced up.

As the motto states in the online publication, The Vocabula Review, "A society is generally as lax as its language."

Political correctness

Another is the effect of ethnic diversity and a certain political correctness that discourages commenting on ways of speaking. Remember the "Ebonics" controversy a few years ago? How dare anyone criticize the dialect that proponents argued was the "natural language" of many speakers in the neighborhoods?

Description vs prescription

As a specialist in language and communication, I am not a prescriptivist, meaning that I do not insist on some ideal form of speech based on a standard dialect.

Instead, I am a pragmatist who asks if one's manner of speaking facilitates understanding or not, and if it achieves the desired communication results.

Let dialects and accents flourish! They spice up the American language with variety. But can one be understood across the many regional, ethnic, and cultural dialects?

My litmus test is understandability.

Multiple dialects

One way to manage this matter is for speakers to function in more than one dialect. Just as we can learn to speak several different languages like Japanese and English and use each when appropriate, we can learn several different dialects - as many readers have done.

For example, when I was working on the ore ships of the Great Lakes many years ago, I picked up a kind of "sailor-speak" dialect in order to understand and also to get along with others. When I returned to university studies, I reverted to "student-speak" dialect.

You do not have to give up - or stamp out - a certain manner of speaking if it works. However, if it doesn't work (for example, it prevents succeeding in job interviews or in studies), some changes are called for.

Otherwise, pain and trouble will be your teachers.

Loren Ekroth © 2005

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life. His articles and programs strengthen critical communication skills for business and professional people. Contact him at Loren@conversation-matters.com. Check resources and archived articles at http://www.conversation-matters.com.

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