Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism.
The "lateral" lisp, where the 's' and 'z' sounds are produced with air escaping over the sides of the tongue, is also called 'slushy ess' or a 'slushy lisp' due to the wet, spitty sound. The symbols for these lateralized sounds are in the Extended International Phonetic Alphabet for speech disorders, and .
Finally there is the "palatal lisp" where the speaker attempts to make the sounds with the tongue in contact with the palate.
Speakers of Latin American Spanish often think that speakers of Castilian Spanish speak with a Castilian lisp. This is because Castilians have separate phenomes /s/ and /θ/, whereas the seseo speakers in Andalucía and Latin America will pronounce both as [s]. A separate phenomenon, seen in parts of Andalucía, pronounces both as [θ]; this is called ceceo.
The interdental lisp is actually standard in the Turkmen language.
Notable people that had or have lisps include Thomas Jefferson (who preferred writing to public speaking partly because of this), Mike Tyson, Drew Barrymore, Jello Biafra, Campbell Brown, David Carradine, Kristin Kreuk, Ric Flair, Keith Hernandez, Sara Rue, Virgil "Dusty Rhodes" Runnels, Jr., Morgan Webb, Rhymefest, Josh Lewin, and Nat King Cole (in his early career). John Adams also had a lisp in his later years, but this was because he refused to wear dentures . The biblical figure Moses is described as having "slow speech and a slow tongue" (Exodus 4:10), which is traditionally interpreted as a lisp, though others have believed it was a stutter or merely hesitancy. Winston Churchill had a slight lisp, which is often incorrectly said to have been a stutter . Bryan Murray, head coach of the Ottawa Senators has a strong lisp when he speaks words with the letter S .*Gay lisp
*Stuttering
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