Most of the deaf I've encountered have more or less made "uhhh" "ahhhh" sounds, which, unfortunately can sound like a retarded person. (sorry for being non-PC)
As you might guess from comments I make in writing, I do that in real life while speaking, too, this "uh" bit.
"Doug's ex-wife is a little, uh, short in the cerebral department."
It's usually because one's trying to remember the right word or it could be a natural hesitation because of insecurity.
In the first instance, hearing people might hear, for example, the word "extravagant" hundreds of times a day, and so they get "programmed" to remember the word for the rest of their lives; it comes out of them with no intellectual effort at all.
We on the other hand have to keep a mental "dictionary" always open inside the head, and the "uh" thing happens because we're flipping through the pages, and not yet finding the word. One can discern this in my writing, which is a reflection of my real-life speaking, when for example I use "veranda."
Using exotic words in my case is NOT due to a vast vocabulary, but rather due to that I'm not finding, in this example, "porch" or "stoop" in that mental dictionary, and so I'm desperately grabbing the first word that is at least remotely similar in meaning.
The "uh" could be--and probably is, in the majority of cases--a sense of inadequacy or insecurity. In real life, I
ask direct questions and usually get direct answers, but I'm hesitant to
answer a direct question
directly, which makes me a
bete noire of, especially, attorneys.
(This is alleviated mostly by taking a private sworn deposition; less time and trouble for all involved.)
Essentially, the deal is, deaf people
distrust spoken communication. On one hand, we tend to be leery of it because we don't know how to use it with much skill, and on the other hand, we tend to
discount its importance because we ourselves seem to get along okay without it.
The interesting thing with the profoundly deaf gal, she loved to crank the stereo in her car. I mean LOUD. I asked her (we would converse with notes) if she could "hear" the stereo. She said she liked the bass notes vibrating the entire car, which it did.
Of course. Sitting in an enclosed automobile, all windows shut, the bass turned to maximum, and the volume turned up as high as the loudspeakers can bear (I've blown out loudspeakers before), is the closest thing one can come to one of those wholly dark little soundproof rooms in audiology clinics.
If one has sensitive joints and appendages, it's a great way to "hear."
I do this late at night any time from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, any chance I get, with National Public Radio, aimlessly driving through the Sandhills of Nebraska, hoping to catch some harpsichord or violin music of the seasonal nature. (Wind and percussion music are usually blank white spots.)
Because I'm a nice guy, though, I don't do this when other people or the cats are riding with me; only when I'm alone.
I aways found the deaf that we had working for us (3 at one time) to be fascinating. It was a good lesson in seeing what it was like to live in a different "world".
You have little idea how different it is.
It's an alternative universe, with very little overlap into the hearing world.
My biggest problem in real life is this: deaf people have to evaluate other people based upon what other people do, while hearing people evaluate other people based upon what other people say.
And so sometimes our opinions of who is a "good" person and who is a "bad" person sharply differ, sometimes acrimoniously so.
It can get really violent, this difference.
You might notice there is a sense of aloof arrogance in the deaf (I know of no exceptions), which probably stems from this. Since we judge people by what they do, rather than what they say, we
know we're better judges of character than hearing people seduced by nice words.
(Now ask me why I loathe the primitives on Skins's island so much; hypocrites.)
Even the most Milquetoastish of the deaf have that arrogant streak in them.
