Can a mute person be a ventriloquist?

[Worlok]

This might sound silly, but the question is serious.

Any ideas? I know there's various causes of "muteness", such as injury of the brain or throat, and I seem to recall that Ventriloquism is largely about holding your tongue in a specific way so that one's regular speech appears to originate from somewhere else, but assuming there is such a thing as a simple - and lets say inborn - "inability to talk", would that person still be able to generate a voice and "throw" it? And would such be a viable alternative for common lip-movement-and-stuff-style speech?

Or let's have a go at this from another angle: Have there been mute ventriloquists other than the one in that one short story Google keeps pushing on me? Did that... you know... "work out"?

And might the study of ventriloquism along with the study of lip-reading have uses for those afflicted with things such as deaf- and muteness, or would that be the equivalent of a "Let them eat cake!" approach?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. :smallsmile:

[The Succubus]

It would depend on the cause of the muteness but I generally believe the answer is no. Ventriloquism still depends on the generation of sounds via the vocal chords and if a person is unable to produce a voice in a normal way, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to generate meaningful speech.

On a more positive note, being hard of hearing is not an impediment to ventriloquism, although depending on the severity of the hearing loss, you may need someone to listen in and make sure the words are still intelligible.

[Zzouzeizeski]

The only way I could think it would work is if you had a psychological condition that prevented you from speaking to someone directly or face-to-face, but were still physically able to speak. They could theoretically use ventriloquism to "speak" through their dummy as an awkward way of coping with social situations.

[Serpentine]

...the definition of "mute" is "unable to talk", regardless of where the sounds are coming from :smallconfused:
Or do you mean something like a situation where a person can make noises in their throat but for some reason can't form them into intelligible words, so could they "throw" the unintelligible sounds? In that case... I don't know, maybe.

[Kelb_Panthera]

As a previous poster said, this is only possible in the case of a psychological inability to speak. As long as the physical mechanisms are intact, and the person knows how to form the words, he or she could throw their voice to a dummy as a coping mechanism. The person would likely have an extraordinarily strong attachment to the dummy, and might even begin to see the dummy as a seperate person. In an extreme case the person might even develop a split personality that only manifests by speaking through the dummy.

If the reason for the person's mutism is physical, or the person simply hasn't the knowledge of how to produce speech, then no they cannot speak through a dummy, just as they can't speak with their own mouth.

[Worlok]

Alright, that all makes its share of sense. Thanks for the swift responses, everyone, it's been a help. :smallsmile:

[Fragenstein]

But what if they used a Muppet to communicate through sign language? Wouldn't that count?

[Hbgplayer]

But what if they used a Muppet to communicate through sign language? Wouldn't that count?

I doubt it. I'm taking my second semester of American Sign Language, and ASL depends greatly on exact hand position, hand shape, motion, as well as non-manual makers, or movements not made with one's hands. This includes raising/lowering eyebrows, pursing/widening your lips, stuff a puppett would not be able to communicate.
Some words that have vastly different meanings have annoyingly similar signs.

[dps]

I doubt it. I'm taking my second semester of American Sign Language, and ASL depends greatly on exact hand position, hand shape, motion, as well as non-manual makers, or movements not made with one's hands. This includes raising/lowering eyebrows, pursing/widening your lips, stuff a puppett would not be able to communicate.
Some words that have vastly different meanings have annoyingly similar signs.

Even if it was possible, it wouldn't be ventriloquism.

It probably should be noted that there are certainly puppet shows in which the puppets never speak, the action being communicated through pantomine, which is obviously simpler (though more universal) than ASL.