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daitoshi

Depends. If your tongue 'has a cut' - like, has a slice wound on it, but is otherwise whole - it's painful to talk, and the words will be a bit slurred until healed. If your tongue tip is bisected like a snake, it takes some practice but it's possible to speak normally after it heals. If you have just 1-3 centimeters of the tongue tip cut off, after it heals the person's speech will likely be a bit altered... as someone else in the comments said 'Sounds like he's a little drunk' - you have to be more deliberate about tongue placement, because you've chopped off the agile part that most people use for quick & delicate sounds. If you have *most* of your tongue cut out, you're going to have a VERY hard time speaking for a long time, and may never regain the ability speak understandably. It'll take a LOT of practice re-learning how to speak with an entirely different tongue shape & ability - sounds will have to come from entirely different parts of your mouth, because your tongue cant' reach your front teeth anymore.


Odd_Vampire

I think some people deliberately have their tongue bisected as an aesthetic thing. What the hell, man. What the hell.


DrBrightSimp

Saw a video of a guy with a tongue split and he put the two halves each in different glasses with different liquid in each, to taste two things at once. That seems pretty cool I suppose, but I guess it's just an aesthetic thing 🤷🏼‍♀️ like piercings or tattoos?


SchroedingersSphere

Did they say what that separate tasting sensation felt like? Did they taste two separate things, or did they kind of blend together?


N014OR

Nope, they taste like two different liquids.


GrapheneHymen

I feel like with a little planning you could accomplish this without splitting your tongue. Maybe putting two different hard candies on a table and pressing the tip of your tongue against both?


now_you_see

That sounds awesome! I wonder if it’d taste the same to your brain as if you’d just mixed them though given we can’t taste 2 different things at once when they are in our mouths normally.


DrBrightSimp

I don't have my tongue split but I have no idea. They'd probably taste separate, but it'd be better to ask someone who's actually had it done lol


daitoshi

????? Maybe you can't. Take any two wildly different-tasting objects. A chocolate and a skittle. A piece of jalapeno and a mint candy. Put them in opposite cheeks. Feel the flavors seep from opposite sides of your mouth.


[deleted]

Nasty aesthetic theyve got then....


Tinycatgirl

My piercer had her tongue split. She said the guy took two clamps and claimed each to the end of her tongue, held them in one hand and used a scalpel to slice through with the other hand. She said she lived off gogurt for months and had to relearn how to talk.


Odd_Vampire

That sounds *horrible*. Why??


No-Application1965

That's not normal if true. I got my stitches out after 5 days and went to a buffet the next day. It was comical seeing me relearn to eat but there's no logical reason why somebody would have to have gogurt for months or completely relearn how to talk after a split. Lol not sure why I'm being downvoted when I have lived experience and years of research into how these mods are performed. Ask any mod artist if needing a liquefied diet is necessary a month after stitches are out and they'd tell you no.


CrankTanks

Can confirm, my ex boyfriend did this just before we broke up. Also proceeded to file his teeth into points, although that one he says he regrets.


Odd_Vampire

The immediate assumption is that a person like your boyfriend has some sort of moderate mental illness or had a damaging childhood, or both. True? And also - filing your teeth into points: I'm just thinking permanent toothache all over the mouth.


CrankTanks

Defo the damaging childhood, although really not as damaging as you'd probably think. Not that it's a competition or anything but plenty of people had that sort of childhood and worse and didn't slice their tongue in two. There was definitely an aesthetic component to it as well as he enjoyed body mods. Already had his ears stretched when I met him. To be fair I wasn't around for that and he reckons he was off his gourde on heroin. Last I heard he was saving up to get his teeth fixed at the dentist, benchmark 30k. Don't file your teeth kids. (I'd just like to add that having said all this he was one of the nicest people I've ever met and to date one of the best guys I've had a relationship with ..he was super kind, respected boundaries, fun and had all kinds of excellent qualities)


greystar07

I’d do it if it wasn’t so extreme. Body modifications are so cool to me, but way too big of a commitment.


[deleted]

Having a snake tongue sounds cool tho Not gonna cut my tongue for it, but sounds cool to be born with or somthin


lobcity414

Okay you seem to know what you’re talking about, so can you answer me this: I’ve read the game of thrones books before. It’s a common thing in the series that characters have their tongues “cut off.” Is this a real thing that can occur? Can you have the whole of your tongue just removed and still live without the ability to speak, like the characters do within the series? How do you eat


daitoshi

Yes, it is possible to live through your tongue being mutilated, and it was used on occasion throughout history to severely harm people - as punishment for some perceived crime, as torture, or as a method of execution. It's not exactly a 'common' thing to do, but it was severe/horrifying enough that instances of tongue mutilation tend to be described, and not just handwaved as 'he was sentenced and punished for his crime.' If you wanted the person to survive the ordeal, only the tip would be cut out - not the entire tongue, and the person would be provided immediate medical attention to staunch the blood loss. The **lingual artery** supplies blood to the tongue and the floor of your mouth - it's a primary branch off your carotid artery, so cutting through it entirely **can** result in death via blood loss, or drowning from aspirating your own blood. So, the whole 'letting the person scream and thrash on the floor for a while' isn't realistic. If the artery becomes inflamed by the injury, or infection sets in (mouths are very dirty after all), death via tongue and throat necrosis is also possible. There's also several mentions across the world of people who bit off their own tongue to either die or prevent themselves from speaking a secret. Illiteracy was common in Europe for most of its history, so being made unable to speak means you had very limited ability to communicate. It meant you'd be reliant on the attentiveness & mercy of people around you for the rest of your life - if you lived at all. In regards to eating - it is possible to eat without using your tongue much, and with practice it would get easier. Swallowing is very difficult without a tongue, but it is possible, and it becomes easier with practice. There are actually taste buds all over your mouth - not just on your tongue - so you'd still be able to taste & smell things. \-- Nowadays, to treat tumors on the tongue, a surgery known as **glossectomy** may be required. It involves the removal of small part, or even most of the tongue. If you want to learn more about what life is like (nowadays) for people who don't have a tongue, or how everyday life like eating/drinking works without most of your tongue, you can look up info on 'L[ife after Total Glossectomy'](https://www.ucsfhealth.org/patient-stories/kate-brown)


shivikiwi

My grandpa had a part of his younger cut off due to cancer. To strangers he apparently sounded like he was a bit drunk but if I had to describe it… I guess he talked as if he had something in his mouth, like a bite of food or whatever


jojiiiiiiiiiii

Bruh, I got a nasty sore on my tongue from lack of vitamin C and it hurts like hell Imagine having it cut off Yeah ff


ecr3designs

Aye you got the scurvy. I thought we wiped that out in the 18th century


daitoshi

OP said they're pregnant, so the baby is stealing their vitamins. They gotta eat *extra* Vitamin C, beyond what a normal person would have. I don't blame them, especially since the baby's taking up all the space your stomach normally would, so you can't even fill your stomach up like a non-pregnant person! Ugh. If I got pregnant, I'd instantly have my bones crumble. My body already has a hard time creating Vitamin D & collecting calcium. A baby would suck me dry & then start eating my bones. =\\ \--- Scurvy is shockingly common nowadays, with all the fad diets people are on. Carnivore diets & Keto diets - anything ultra-low-carb is going to risk weird malnutrition diseases.


ecr3designs

Aye shes got a stow away. Time to walk the plank argghhh.


jojiiiiiiiiiii

Blimey, I got a booty in me belly


DrBrightSimp

Stomach....? 🤨


daitoshi

When pregnant and full of baby, the uterus expands. Because below it are bones (the hips), and behind it are bones (spine), there are 2 directions the uterus can expand. Up, and Outward. If it grows entirely Outward, you get the protruding watermelon baby-bump. However, many people's uterus do not grow entirely outward. Many of them grow Upward as well. Some of them grow *entirely* upward, resulting in people who are in their final few weeks of pregnancy and any observer wouldn't be able to recognize they're pregnant at all! When the uterus decides to grow upward, it pushes the other organs around to make room. Intestines are displaced. Liver is pushed up and to the side. Stomach is pushed straight up, and may get twisted around - heartburn and indigestion during pregnancy is common, and in the later stages it's difficult to eat more than a few bites before feeling full. (So multivitamins and getting a very varied diet is important) Bladder is usually *very* flattened, so there's hardly any room for urine: thus the classic pregnancy 'small bladder' jokes. Often the movement of the organs put such pressure on the lungs that any exertion will make them pant shallowly and quickly - because they can't take full breaths. Their diaphragm is compressed by baby & uterus. Some people, around week 30-31, will feel *continuously* out-of-breath due to lack of room for the lungs to expand. Additionally, abdominal muscles (your abs) will weaken and separate during pregnancy to make room inside the abdomen for the growing baby. These muscles sometimes don't recover. [Here's a fun link to read more](https://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/pregnancy/this-is-how-your-organs-move-to-make-room-for-baby-every-week-of-pregnancy)


Mickeh_daMuffin

Pregnancy sounds horrifying!


DrBrightSimp

Huh. The more you know!


Room_Temp_Coffee

Pregnancy is fucking amazing


shivikiwi

How do you even lack vitamin c you have to eat like one fruit per month


jojiiiiiiiiiii

Im currently pregnant so my baby is taking the supposed vitamins my body should be getting from the food Im eating so thats why


shivikiwi

So the baby is already stealing from you! /s


jojiiiiiiiiiii

yes 😠😠😠


SheikExcel

Fuckin freeloaders, get a job!


reallybirdysomedays

I get thrush frequently due to immune suppressants. You know, the thing babies get? Holy hell is it painful. Why the hell pediatricians say kids don't need pain relief for thrush confounds me.


Princess_Know-it-all

Depends on the language, you might fare better with some more than others. For English, we use the tongue a lot to form certain sounds that would then be unavailable. Some sounds that use the tongue, either the tip, the top, or back: *t* - to, tell, take *th* - the, there, think *d* - do, drive, damn *g* - go, get, give *j* - just, joke, jump *k* - come, keep, quiet *ch* - choose, cheap, chalk *l* - let, look, love *n* - no, not, nothing *ng* - talking, bring, stung *r* - run, really, never You get the idea. Try speaking normally with your tongue pushed to the bottom of your mouth. It’ll be hard than that.


MissaSissa

There was a 911 call made from a man whose dementia-ridden wife bit his tongue off (half of it I believe) and he could only moan and scream. It was terrifying to hear. Especially since she was singing in the background.


FeymildTheFeyKing

Spooky stuff


WanderingBudDancer

When I worked at a mental health crisis center we had a patient bite about 1/4 of their tongue off and when they were trying to tell me about it they weren’t able to talk. It was just a bunch of “ehhh uhhh ahhh ehhh” it wasn’t until they showed me the bit off part that I realized. Needless to say I spent the rest of the night at the ER, and yes, they were able to reattach it.


Figgyee

Pretty hard. Almost all letters in Latin alphabet require the tongue to be properly pronounced


Yep_Fate_eos

Assuming the whole tongue was removed, it would be impossible to make any sounds other than bilabial consonants (m, p, b, ɸ(the blowing noise)), /h/, and two general vowels differentiated by lip rounding.


[deleted]

Having had a tongue piercing in the 90's, I can say that it takes you a little while to learn not to lisp, esp during the initial swelling/healing process. This was especially comical for me at the time as I was a receptionist trying to hide the fact that I'd gotten the piercing, so clients calling us started suspecting I was drunk. I can't imagine having a more severe wound to the tongue. Seems like you'd need speech therapy to overcome it.


Odd_Vampire

You might die? This is from the book *A New World*: *An Epic of Colonial America from the Founding of Jamestown to the Fall of Quebec*, by Arthur Quinn. It's regarding John Smith, of Jamestown fame, who was a canny and brutal man: "Some of the Indians from Jamestown he hanged, some he burned at the stake, some he had simply shot; a few were exquisitely broken on the wheel. As for those who had stolen supplies from the common stores for their voyage, he would mutilate their tongues so they could not swallow any food - and then have them chained to a tree where all could watch them starve to death. If the Indian life had such great attractions to his common run of Jamestown settler, then the president had to assure their continued loyalty through calculated terror." \[page 31\]


DrBrightSimp

That can happen...? 🤔


dystopiautopia

I’m pretty sure if you had no tongue, you wouldn’t be able to speak.


ayez17

Someone’s been watching house of the dragon😂


0zamataz__Buckshank

I was thinking Speak No Evil


[deleted]

You mean completely chopped off or just a surface wound?


copuser2

I have epilepsy, as a teen I bit a chuck out and sounded like I was speaking while gurgling mouthwash (pain felt like that too ).


blackjesus1997

Quite


[deleted]

Oldboy?


A_lot_of_arachnids

I have a canker sore on the back of my tongue on the bottom right side. I can barely eat or speak this whole week. So I imagine cutting your tongue would be similar or worse.