a "mouse's" way of speaking
monte is one of my favorite captains, though, i do appear to notice that he seems to stutter a lot more frequently than i have ever heard with any other captain, and not in the way of a "timid" voice, but much closer to an actual stutter.
i am not saying this would be a trait to mock at in the slightest. on the contrary, that could explain a portion of "how monte is" much rather than relegating him as "keith's little brother, mouse".
on the subject of "mouse", while monte has said in the season finale 16.23 that he was "timid and small" as that period, also in a livechat, keith is quoted of:
LINK: "Lola147: Why is Monte called “Mouse”? Keith Colburn: There are 3 Colburn brothers. Monte is the youngest, and when he was young he was the quietest. So our next door neighbor coined the term Monte Mouse back in 1969 (*monte, being born in may of 1964- would be about 4-5 years old during that moment*), and it’s stuck ever since. I usually just call him “The Rodent'-."
a persistent developmental stutter (also known as "PDS", which is a stutter that "develops" in childhood, then "persists" into adulthood), the variant of stutter i believe monte has, starts to emerge from that age range (2-5 years old, 3 as the average onset).
as the time he was given the nickname was in the upper-end of the emergence range, the early stuttering traits could have caused monte to differ from the usual "talkative toddler", as due to potential anxiety about how we would speak, hence would cause him to be described as noticeably "timid" and "quiet" at that age, from a variety of sources (himself, his brother, his adult neighbor, and his childhood friends.
though, i heard this exponentially more in episode 20.16 ("my brother's keeper", great episode, please watch if you have not) than any other episode, coincidentally the most monte has ever being shown in a single episode by a very sizable margin.
while stress would not cause the source of a pds stutter, it does however, significantly worsens speech fluency. being in a back and forth argument with your brother about a decision you made, that immediately preceded in his ischemic stroke that you both heard and watched, which is then yours obligation to ensure your brother's live is secured- would naturally cause a major amount of stress to any human.
due to this, as his stress increase drastically, so did his verbal disfluencies to the point three of them with classified as such in the forms of:
05:52/41:37- Monte (while on call with Brianna): "I just… I-I-I think the prudent thing to do… is to- is to head to the island. Can you get ahold of the clinic?" as "I just...[stammering]"
06:05/41:37- Monte (while on call with Brianna): "Uh- I'm-I'm, right now… about 60 miles. So, you know it's… I can be dockside in seven or eight hours at the very most." again as "Uh, [stammers] I'm, right now,"
11:42/41:37- Monte (while on call with Brianna): "Yeah. I-I-I-I-I think I need to talk to them myself." as explicitly "Yeah. [stuttering]"
though, it did not take note of the countless other occurrences, it was evident that some of them were too unintelligible to trace out "what he said", hence leaving at the [---] classifications.
i, however note that a stutter is not in any way just shown in repetitions such "w-w-w-ater", or what the show itself noted. throughout monte's speech, though especially this episode; it is also displayed in the forms of prolongations (of sounds), verbal blocks, fillers (such as "uh", "um", or "like"), intentional avoidance of certain words that are known to cause the former, and occasional breath utterances before the former.
while i am not completely certain of such nor has monte himself ever note of such, it has become a notable trait for i have started to notice almost anything monte has a sizable speaking role.