Why deaf people sneeze silently

[dipsydoodle]

An online magazine for the deaf community, Limping Chicken, recently ran an item on how deaf and hearing people sneeze differently.

The article by partially deaf journalist Charlie Swinbourne got readers talking - and the cogs started turning at Ouch too.

Swinbourne observes that deaf people don't make the "achoo!" sound when they sneeze, while hearing people seem to do it all the time - in fact, he put it in his humorous list, The Top 10 Annoying Habits of Hearing People.

Nor is "achoo" universal - it's what English-speaking sneezers say. The French sneeze "atchoum". In Japan, it's "hakashun" and in the Philippines, they say "ha-ching".

Inserting words into sneezes - and our responses such as "bless you" - are cultural habits we pick up along the way. So it's not surprising that British deaf people, particularly users of sign language, don't think to add the English word "achoo" to this most natural of actions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-23162903

[GeorgeGist]

1. I can hear but I don't say 'achoo'

... except in jest.

[Igel]

2. In the event all those "culturally distinct" "words" are about the same.

Do you round your lips during the expellation portion or not? /u/ versus /i/.

Do you bring your vocal folds together as you're inhaling? Silence versus /a/.

Do you *hear* the stop as a t or as a k? It's a palatal. It's neither.

Do you have a distinction between nasal and non-nasal vowels? Then you get to write it differently. It's almost always nasal.

Do you have a single palatal africate or two? It's a back palatal, but you'd write it differently if you had to choose.

"Atchoum" and "achoo" are the same. "Akashun" trivially distinct and largely an orthographic distinction, although I'm sure some purists would opt for a "spelling pronunciation". "Aching" lacks lip rounding, that's the difference there.

I'm quiet. I know how to lax my vocal folds and so all you hear is the sound of air being inhaled, no vocal fold vibration.