Language drunk?

We tell ourselves our speech changes during being drunk as a get out for the regrettable things we say, but does it really?  We swear, we slur, we stammer. Yes, our normal, everyday speech is different from our drunken idiolects.

 

Main Entry: alcohol [al-kuh-hawl, -hol]

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: that lethal substance we blame on texting our ex, falling on our face in front of a large group of people and feeling like crap the next day.

 

Alcohol causes a person to become more relaxed, this as a result facilitates the process of speaking. Alcohol also affects muscle control meaning that it impacts on a person’s memory and makes reasoning slower.

 

Harry Hollien from the University of Florida and his assistants measured speed, pitch, volume and pronunciation of thirty five adults, which they catergorised into groups based on how much they drink on average. At the highest amount of alcohol given the participants were thought to be "severely intoxicated" (this must have been hilarious to study). Whilst drunk, they had to perform various speaking tasks, both controlled and uncontrolled. For example reading a passage and discussing a topic freely.

Hollien found that participants speaking rates dropped as they became drunker.  There seemed to be a point at which slowing of their speech occurred. His researchers also found that the most significant impact of alcohol on speech was an increase in ‘no fluencies.’ These consisted of added or omitted phonemes and repeated and lengthened words.

So there we go, we can blame the shit we speak whilst drunk ‘on the alcohol’ – and for the record, the specific point at which the slowing of speech occurs in men is at a  blood alcohol level between 0.04 and 0.08; and for women,  this occurs between 0.08 and 0.12. Try and tell someone that whilst drunk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdG6jhg7A4A

Chloe Elmes