核心畫面

You can think of stammer as speech tripping. A foot catches on a step, stops for a beat, and then walks on; a sound catches in the same way and comes out twice before the sentence moves. Nobody chooses to trip, and that is the part of the picture that matters most. Let the tripping happen while someone is talking and you have the verb; name the thing that keeps tripping them and you have the noun.

stammer 可以想成「話絆了一下」。腳被階梯絆住會頓一拍再走;有一個音也這樣卡住,先重複兩次,句子才走得下去。畫更多收起stammer 可以想成「話絆了一下」。腳被階梯絆住會頓一拍再走;有一個音也這樣卡住,先重複兩次,句子才走得下去。畫面裡最重要的一點是:沒有人是故意絆倒的。讓這個絆住的動作在說話中發生,就是動詞;把那個一直讓人絆住的東西指出來,就是名詞。

From the word’s history

From Middle English stameren, from Old English stamerian; the source notes it is a doublet of 'stumble'.

來自中古英文 stameren、古英文 stamerian;資料明確指出它跟 stumble(絆倒)是同源的雙式詞。也就是說,「說話絆住」和「走路絆住」在字源上本來就是同一家人,這條線索正好撐住上面那幅畫面。

Wiktionary etymology supplied in this packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:466622272) for 'stammer': Middle English stameren < Old English stamerian; 'Doublet of stumble'