What is the euphemism for "mute"?

Question

It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
Definitely not that. People who are unable to make speech are still able to use language.
I've worked in healthcare settings for almost twenty years, and the only label I've ever heard used is, "can't speak." The single exception to this, as best I can recall, is when someone has laryngitis, and then we use the word "laryngitis".

Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
Here comes the AEU cripple to the rescue: The preferred term is non-verbal. I am, btw, being flamed in misc.handicapped for complaining about sloppy top posting. At last glance I was referred to as "that stupid fat ***" by an amputee. As online as in real life, I am never quite at home in either world, that of ableism or disability. Maybe because I am increasingly hard on the latter group as I increasingly lose my independence.

Maybe I should just buckle down and struggle to be the writer and scholar I once thought I could be, but as you can see, I've been spoiled with at least some degree of acceptance by this group, and rather like it.

Joanne

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
I'm dumbfounded - why should "mute" be offensive?
I thought that "mute" was used (in US) as a euphemism for "dumb". The only reason I can see for dumb?s being considered offensive is that is confused with "dumm", a German loan word meaning dull, stupid.

To me, "mute" means something rather different: something like "less noisy". E.g trumpets have "mutes" which work like a swell box.

If you were to find a euphemism for "mute", that too would soon be in need a further one.
"Big flees have lesser flees ..."
I see that the ultra-PC NRSV of the Bible uses "speechless", or "silent" in passages such as (AV):
Isaiah 35:6 ... the tongue of the dumb sing
53:7 ... as a sheep before her shearers is dumb
56:10 ... they are all dumb dogs
John
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John A Green
Leigh, Lancashire & Aberdeen

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
[nq:1]Here comes the AEU cripple to the rescue: The preferred term is non-verbal.[/nq]
I can't argue with this, but it strikes me as a very poor choice of term. (I don't blame you for the choice, Joanne; I know you're just reporting.) Aphasia, the partial or total loss of the brain's ability to come up with the desired word, strikes me as far closer to what "non-verbal" connotes than does the physical inability to speak. Someone with aphasia literally cannot produce words. Someone physically unable to speak can always produce words by writing or typing unless afflicted with far more severe problems than muteness.
Stephen Hawking, to take an obvious example, is hardly "non-verbal" as I understand that word, but his disease prevents him from speaking coherently. So he uses a keyboard and synthesizer. Without his equipment he's mute, but he still has language available to him.
Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I don't see anything wrong with "mute" (except, perhaps, that it's a four-letter word), nor can I think of a good one- or two-word substitute. Perhaps the OP was thinking of "dumb" in the sense "mute."
[nq:1]Maybe I should just buckle down and struggle to be the writer and scholar I once thought I could be, but as you can see, I've been spoiled with at least some degree of acceptance by this group, and rather like it.[/nq]
In space no one can hear you scream, and in Usenet no one can see your wheelchair. We take you as you present yourself. We discuss usage, you discuss usage no big whoop.

Liebs

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
I heard a new euphemism today "handicapable".
Phatically handicapable? CDB

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Here comes the AEU cripple to the rescue: The preferred term is non-verbal.[/nq]
[nq:1]I can't argue with this, but it strikes me as a very poor choice of term. (I don't blame you ... with the desired word, strikes me as far closer to what "non-verbal" connotes than does the physical inability to speak.[/nq]
Not all mutes are unable. There was something on NPR about this yesterday, and I missed the start, but one example was a second grade girl who was told not to talk in the classroom, and she continued not to for years after that. The teacher who had her in his 4th grade class was proud that he got her to say a few words once.

There was another child who didn't say a thing during her year in his class I think it was the same teacher but he still talked to her like he did to the other students. At a few years later, he saw her at a busstop and sat next to her on the bench, and she said "You were the best teacher I had". After that she said nothing, that day, or every two weeks afterward when he saw her at the bus stop again.

Volutnary mutes, I think the radio host referred to them as. No one contradicted him on that.
[nq:1]Someone with aphasia literally cannot produce words. Someone physically unable to speak can always produce words by writing or typing unless afflicted with far more severe problems than muteness. Stephen Hawking, to take an obvious example, is hardly "non-verbal" as I understand that word,[/nq]
The difference between verbal and oral.
[nq:1]but his disease prevents him from speaking coherently. So he uses a keyboard and synthesizer. Without his equipment he's mute, ... there's something wrong with me, but I don't see anything wrong with "mute" (except, perhaps, that it's a four-letter word),[/nq]
Me, neither.
Some people are mute because they are deaf, but not so many as in the past I think.
[nq:1]nor can I think of a good one- or two-word substitute. Perhaps the OP was thinking of "dumb" in the sense "mute."[/nq]
Maybe.
Dumb just meant mute, but because "better to be silent and thought a fool", people think that mute people are not to smart, so dumb came to mean stupid.

I presume we're talking about fleas.
[nq:2]Maybe I should just buckle down and struggle to be ... degree of acceptance by this group, and rather like it.[/nq]
[nq:1]In space no one can hear you scream, and in Usenet no one can see your wheelchair. We take you as you present yourself. We discuss usage, you discuss usage no big whoop.[/nq]
s/ meirman
If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
now in Baltimore 20 years

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]It seems that "mute" is quite often offensive, then what is the more euphemistic way of saying this? Language-handicapped?[/nq]
[nq:1]I heard a new euphemism* today "handicapable". Phatically handicapable? CDB[/nq]
*and mishy-phen, as I now see.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Here comes the AEU cripple to the rescue: The preferred term isnon-verbal.[/nq]
[nq:1]Stephen Hawking, to take an obvious example, is hardly "non-verbal" as I understand that word, but his disease prevents him from speaking coherently. So he uses a keyboard and synthesizer. Without his equipment he's mute, but he still has language available to him.[/nq]
For legal purposes in the US he is indeed non-verbal. It is not simply civil rights agitators who use the word, but health care professionals, and the designation is an important factor these days, in terms of the degree of services one receives due to a physical inability to speak.
[nq:1]Maybe there's something wrong with me, but I don't see anything wrong with "mute" (except, perhaps, that it's a four-letter word), nor can I think of a good one- or two-word substitute. Perhaps the OP was thinking of "dumb" in the sense "mute."[/nq]
Tsk tsk. If you feel you are too old to give Alex Trebek a sound bite, then you ought to realize that what our activists are fighting against, to give them their due, is prejudice ingrained by historical perception. Ever see the wonderful Jane Wyman movie where she played a deaf-mute? Everyone but the doctor treated her like she was an idiot-savant, and mute, like it or not, carries such a negative connotation.
[nq:2]Maybe I should just buckle down and struggle to be ... degree of acceptance by this group, and rather like it.[/nq]
[nq:1]In space no one can hear you scream, and in Usenet no one can see your wheelchair. We take you as you present yourself. We discuss usage, you discuss usage no big whoop. Liebs[/nq]
Eh. It is difficult for me to remember the party line about pride over pity, and if I really discuss the dilemma of living in two worlds, I'll get my *** kicked

But it nags at me in the back of my mind that maybe I suffered just enough brain damage and mood disorder so that I would neverquite get my doctorate in feminist literature studies, and at this point, I may never know. There are not many disabled individuals whom I respect on the same level I probably would respect you, if I knew you, for your acumen with arguments, and I mean arguments in its technical sense.

And yet, the power of shared experience binds me to someone like my fiancé in ways even the most empathetic able man, with whom I might have more shared intellectual interests, might feel alienated by.

If I had been dumber I could only imagine the possibilities, but mom said those good old doctors warned her I had a very high IQ.

But I will now tell myself to shut up. You can thank me later. He ha.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Someone with aphasia literally cannot produce words.[/nq]
That's one type of aphasia. Another is when someone can produce words or word-like sounds but can't communicate what they wish to.

My mother's mother had a CVA and, for the rest of her life, could only say "no", "Oh, no", and a slurred "I don't know". When she asked for something, she'd point and say "No no no no no?" (When my cousin would call collect from wherever the Army stationed him, he'd hope very strongly that she would not answer the phone. "Do you accept the charges?" "No No No!") She qualified as aphasic.
[nq:1]Someone physically unable to speak can always produce words by writing or typing unless afflicted with far more severe problems than muteness.[/nq]
I never knew if she could write or not because she lost the use of her right ("write") hand and refused to learn to compensate for it.

Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?

What is the euphemism for "mute"?

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