George Washington's Speech Impediment

[Jonathan Lighter]

I've seen exx. of his spelling. IIRC, it was pretty bad, at least in his youth.

  That "speech impediment" sounds more like a regional trait, wouldn't you say?

  Next stage: "George Washington's embarrassing speech impediment was was the result of his ridiculous wooden teeth."

  Fact: Washington's false teeth were made of ivory.

  Like Barry, I wonder increasingly why we even bother.

  JL


  AAllan at AOL.COM wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: AAllan at AOL.COM
Subject: George Washington's Speech Impediment
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In the Writer's Almanac this morning, Garrison Keillor said that George
Washington had a speech impediment. In particular, he mixed i's and e's, both in
speaking and in writing.

I hadn't heard about this before. Anyone know about it?

- Allan Metcalf


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