"... Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the normal flow of speech is disrupted by frequent repetitions or prolongations of speech sounds, syllables or words or by an individual's inability to start a word. The speech disruptions may be accompanied by rapid eye blinks, tremors of the lips and/or jaw or other struggle behaviors of the face or upper body that a person who stutters may use in an attempt to speak. Certain situations, such as speaking before a group of people or talking on the telephone, tend to make stuttering more severe, whereas other situations, such as singing or speaking alone, often improve fluency. Stuttering may also be referred to as stammering, especially in England ..." per National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Demosthenes, a great orator, illustrates that stuttering can be remedied and Emperor Claudius illustrates that spastic Cerebral Palsy may impede speech without alteration of cognitive abilities.

To overcome dysarthia (speech impediment) Demosthenes placed pebbles in his mouth.

Strong sensations and emotions may induce STUTTERING and make a person temporarily appear DUMB or MUTE. Such may happen when tasting a wine that is strongly TART as is vinegar. This idea is conveyed by TARTAMUDO, a Spanish word for STUTTERER. The same ideas emerge from STUM and other ancient germanic roots pointing to tart fermenting young wines. Tart may also be used to brand and degrade women with such allure as to make men stutter or appear dumbfounded by implying that such women are wanton, nymphomaniac or prostitutes. The landscape is further expanded by BALBUS, BLEAT and BATTUS. Balbus in Latin means stutterer and gave rise to BABY and BABBLE.

II, EE, AA are echoic elements in slavic, germanic and romance words related to stuttering including Za-II-KA (Ukrainian) and BL-EA-T, B-AA-BLE, B-AA-Ba, BABY.

Battus is a mythologic character who was transformed into a creature mute like a stone. Battus was a shepherd from Pylos who betrayed secrets of Hermes for which he was transformed into a creature as "silent as a stone". Battology (the medical discipline dedicated to stuttering), arose from the name of a stuttering king named after the mythic Battus. Perhaps Battology shares ideas with BATON and BEAT since stuttering speech can, at times, occur in bursts and blurts. "Vocal pedagogy" is a more modern but less elegant way to refer to Battology.

Emperor Claudius suffered from dysphonia, dysarthria, dyskenisia and dysphoria, perhaps due to CP (altered voice, speech, neck contorsions and dysphoria or "quick temper") .

  Heredotus tells of the founder of Cyrene, King Battos, who sought help for his stuttering from the Delphic oracle. History repeatedly underscores that stuttering should not be considered a sign of a diminished intellect.

Demosthenes, perhaps the most eloquent orator of all times, was a stutterer, had great difficulty in producing the "rrr" sound and suffered from spastic contortions of his shoulder.  To vanquish his inarticulate stammering speech, Demosthenes relentlessly worked to discipline his locution, including by placing small pebbles in his mouth. Like Demosthenes, the Roman Emperor Claudius stuttered badly and may also have suffered from cerebral palsy or CP. Claudius had involuntary muscle contortions of his shoulder and neck and had a limp. But nonetheless became a bright ruler and is remembered as a serious writer. He is remembered for refusing to be deified and stating that "... only gods choose other gods ...".

The thick neck of Claudius may be the result of neck and head contorsions.

Depictions Emperor Claudius often show that he had a thick neck, perhaps the result of involuntary chronic spasmodic contractions of his cleido-mastoid and other cervical muscles. Both Claudius and his nephew Caligula are also depicted with prominent ears.

Many distinguished Roman families had the name BALBUS to point out the existence of a stuttering ancestor. Among others, Atia Balba Caesonia was a famous women and mother of Caesar Augustus. Their also were two Roman Consuls named Balbias. From Balbus, Balbius we get Baldwin, a popular modern English family name. The list of famous people that stuttered is vast and includes Moses, Aristotle, Darwin, Churchil all of which underscores that stuttering persisting beyond childhood does not impede bright and determined minds.