Wednesday, March 11, 1998 at 14:41:28

I'm sure that FP have been in use for various purposes and reasons for many years (generations?) in most cultures. It is odd that I first became aware of the phenom late in the 70's. A young lady had come from Lubbock to Kermit, Texas to install a computer system.  She was an Indian from an indiginous tribe in Northern South America.   She used the sexiest "um" that one can imagine.  I don't know to this day if this was intentional on her part or a "fragment" of my imagination. Whatever, it was interesting.

- JW

It's hard to imagine that your acquaintance intentionally produced 'sexy' speech disfluencies.  It may have just the right balance of pitch, tone, and timbre which matched your preconceptions.  It is interesting to note how each of us establishes idiosyncratic methods of achieving hesitation in our speech.

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