A flatmate in the early 80s was a stammerer as a younger boy. In the school canteen, he’d be trying to order sausages and mash: “S-s-s-s-sausages and m-m-m-m-m-mash,” and a long queue would build up behind him, with people getting cross with him for holding them up.
His speech therapist taught him a technique—which was to start every word with a nasal ‘n’ (not ‘en’, just the ‘n’ version of ‘mm’). This would stop the stuttering. So he practised all night on sausages and mash: “n-sausages and n-mash”.
The following day, full of confidence, he stood in the food queue, ready to order his sausages and mash in half a second. When he got up to the food display area, he found that sausages and mash were off the menu for that day, replaced by fish and chips. So the poor boy had to start all over again, “F-f-f-f-f….”
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