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This paper introduces a dynamical systems framework for understanding stuttering, conceptualizing it as a qualitative shift in speech articulation driven by a single control parameter. Using a forced Duffing oscillator model, we demonstrate how variations in the excitation frequency can account for transitions between fluent and stuttered speech states. The model generates specific predictions about articulatory behaviors during stuttering, which we test using real-time MRI data of stuttered speech. Analysis of articulatory movements provides empirical support for the model’s predictions, suggesting that stuttering can be understood as a dynamical disease—an intact system operating outside its typical parameter range. This framework offers new insights into the nature of stuttering and potential approaches to intervention.