Different patterns with "neither nor"

Question

1. Since early childhood, I have spoken with a stutter. Neither of my parents does, nor had either of them known stutterers before I was born. (Newyorker)

I find although the sentence above has "neither" and "nor", but they work separately. I'm trying to express roughly the same idea with different patterns, where "neither" and "nor" work together.

2. My parents neither speak with a stutter, nor had they known stutterers before I was born.

3. Neither do my parents speak with a stutter,nor had they known stutterers before I was born.

4. My parents don't speak with a stutter, nor had they known stutterers before I was born.

5. My parents neither speak with a stutter, nor had known stutterers before I was born.

I think they all work except (3), Am I right?

Answer 1

The original is fine. "Neither of my parents stutter" does not need to be followed by a "nor" because the word 'neither' functions as a pronoun to indicate "not either" of the parents.

Your other examples use "neither...nor" as a correlative conjunction pair connecting the two list items. They may be grammatically okay, but logically they are a bit off. They all group your "parents" together when in fact you are speaking about their individual experiences and speaking ability. Stick to the original.