Why can people without lisps easily imitate them without any training or effort, but people with lisps have a hard time speaking without them?

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I understand there are a group of people with physical conditions that make speech production difficult (this question is not about them), but that most lisps are a result of the way a person has learned to shape their mouth .

Why is this effect directional (easy one way, hard the other way)? Why can’t people with a lisp imitate lisp-free speech as easily?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The same reason why a person with a good leg can easily imitate having a limp whereas a person with a lame leg can’t easily imitate not having one.

There are many causes of having different kinds of lisps, but it is a kind of mistake (for whatever reason). It takes specific training and practice to correct it.