RANDOM so random of a voice

[afuna]

Ummm. I was ranting to someone over how I'm sick of being mistaken for a kid, and they pointed out that one reason is that my voice is very soft -- and that I sound younger when speaking in Filipino than I do when speaking in English.

Mas malambing kasi ako sa Filipino (more... soft? gentle? cuddly? when I'm speaking in Filipino)

And I'm feeling a bit asdfghhhhh I did not realize that was even going on. I mean of course the accent is different, but I didn't realize just how much that does actually affect tone ahaha.

Anyway, I recorded a couple short clips of myself speaking JUST BECAUSE:

Filipino:
English:

PS. Ugh at some point I'm going to have to figure out how to sound more mature. That day is not yet today, I can't deal with it right now but AT SOME POINT YEAH.

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

Your voice is indeed pitched higher when you speak Filipino. You sound very sweet in both languages. Also, as someone who got a 'can I speak to your mom' for years when answering the phone, I understand your frustration. ;)

[syntheid]

I recorded a clip of me speaking Japanese the other day, and a friend told me I speak much higher in Japanese than I do in English, ahah. I've recently noticed when I try to speak Mandarin, for some reason my natural tendency is to pitch it so low it actually hurts my throat. Languages and dialects seem to 'come with' their own sort of pitch-ranges, which is interesting. /lingnerd rambling

But I have similar issues with sounding (and looking) like a child to some people, which is really irritating, so I can sympathize, too.

[pinesandmaples]

Languages and dialects seem to 'come with' their own sort of pitch-ranges, which is interesting. /lingnerd rambling

I think that's true! rooibos is a sweet, lovely, femme-y speaker in U.S. English, but she sounds downright furious when she switches to Trinidadian English. Even when she's happy and squealing about a cute baby with her mother, she sounds like she's ranting. Her argument is that Trinidadians are just angry.

[jewelfox]

I read about this in Kyoko Mori's "Polite Lies." She thinks it's ingrained in Japanese culture to speak with a "sweet" high-pitched voice if you're female.

[zorkian]

I noticed while I was out there that you spoke in a very soft, not very assertive tone when you were speaking with non-family. Generally. I think there were a few exceptions, but generally it sounded softer and younger to my ears.

In particular, there were times you'd say thanks to someone (I forget the word, but it meant 'man/brother' or something, like "thanks, guy!"), but if I were to type out how you say it I'd do something like "thanks, guy~~ ^^" because you let the end slide out a bit long and upwards in pitch. As opposed to "thanks, guy!" which would have a solid, definite ending. To me, the former comes across as sounding younger and less assertive. :)

[synecdochic]

it's called upspeak! (well, actually, as the wikipedia article title indicates, it's called 'high rising terminal speech', but everybody just usually calls it upspeak.) and yeah, to US ears at least, that particular intonation is coded as very feminine, and more young than not.

afuna, i don't think it's the volume of your voice that's registered as 'soft' -- i think it's more that the resonance of your voice is very, very much positioned in your mouth and sinuses, rather than your throat or your chest. the more head-resonant a voice is, the 'younger' and 'softer' it will be perceived as (again, i'm generalizing for US ears there.)

like, when you listen to me, even if i'm speaking at the same decibel level as someone else, a listener will perceive me to be speaking louder almost without fail, because the entire resonance of my voice is in my chest. (this is how i can reach an entire large room full of people without being perceived as 'shouting' and without straining my throat or voice much at all.) likewise, even if two voices are at the same pitch and frequency, the more head-resonant one will be perceived as 'higher' than the more chest-resonant one.

if you want i can give you some basic breathing exercises that will usually shift your vocal resonance downward if you do them religiously!

[alexbayleaf]

Yup, upspeak was the first thing I thought of too. When I first learned the term, I started to hear it everywhere -- especially in women of my background (of all ages) because it seems to be culturally taught/expected here. I decided I didn't want to be doing it all the time (especially in work contexts or things like that) so I partially trained myself out of it. The downside, of course, is that people sometimes interpret me as intimidating/angry/bitchy if I don't soften my voice to their liking, even if I'm saying something fairly straightforward.

Now, on the rare occasions that I speak to my sister, all I can hear in her voice is upspeak upspeak upspeak. It's quite disconcerting hearing a voice that is similar to mine in many ways, but seems to working hard not to come across as confident or authoritative.

[alierak]

... meanwhile I am trying to figure out why the playback widgets display while the page is loading, fade, and then disappear when the page finishes loading. Your playback widgets need to be more assertive!

[pinesandmaples]

PS. Ugh at some point I'm going to have to figure out how to sound more mature. That day is not yet today, I can't deal with it right now but AT SOME POINT YEAH.

I'm guessing testosterone is not an option? (Joke.)

[zhelana]

The softness is the same, but it sounds like you're talking from your throat and mouth instead of your chest if that makes any sense.