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Padraig
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28 Sep 2011, 11:23 pm

I've frequently been listening to the way people talk recently. I still find it amusing and puzzling how much people change the pitch, volume, and other qualities of their voice while talking to other people. When I try to replicate that, it's very exhausting and I come off as odd. People seem to have a lot of bizarre mannerisms when they talk to other people.

This post doesn't have a specific question to ask, but I am interested in your musings on the topic.



Sibyl
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28 Sep 2011, 11:42 pm

We're known for our monotone, mechanical voices, but I must be more like an NT that way-- people don't say anything about that: probably I learned masking the trait very young, because my mother worked with me on saying "pieces" and dramatic readings at programs, and bringing out the emotions. What I _am_ criticized for, and pretty much always was, was for talking too fast: this is when I'm just talking naturally for myself, not performing. I have to have rehearsed pace, and be always thinking about how I sound, to pace it more slowly.



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29 Sep 2011, 1:57 am

I've always been able to remember inflections and timing perfectly, or very nearly. For example, I once tuned into a radio station that was in the interlude part of Baba Who Are You, which is, as far as I'm aware, written uniformly, and yet I still knew exactly when the music shifted - no second guessing whatsoever. I imagine this is some subconsciously perceptible defect in how the music is played like the neurological phenomena associated with chicken sexers and plane spotters.

Anyway, I've always detected changes in voices reliably, but I have come to realize that when I replicate the same qualities, I do not accentuate them nearly as much as NTs, like my entire vocal range is compressed. Considering I can mimic voices (with massive concentration) I plan to practice and judge how close I am really approximating the sounds of NTs, and improve my own vocal communication to match. Eventually, I may be able to pass as one of them.


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Mummy_of_Peanut
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29 Sep 2011, 5:09 am

I remember we had a student from France, teaching French at our school. She was really amused by the way I speak. Apparently French requires a more monotone voice than the way I speak. She said, 'Why is your voice so up and down? Try not to do that.'



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29 Sep 2011, 5:17 am

One of the parts of the speech therapy I went through as a kid was trying to add things like the questioning raising of tone at the end of a question. I eventually got better at it, but it took a bunch of work.



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29 Sep 2011, 5:20 am

I don't know what my inflection is like. I know I can consciously add inflection, but I'm not really aware of how I come across when I'm not thinking about it.



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29 Sep 2011, 5:25 am

I generally don't speak in monotone and can actually use different tones when I talk, but sometimes when I'm speaking to someone who I don't like or feel nervous of, my voice can be monotone, which I find hard to break into tone, and if I do I will probably go squeaky or sound funny. But I think that's due to Social Phobia - I can speak in monotone when feeling more Socially Phobic than normal.

I HATE speaking in monotone - if I speak in too much monotone (because of being around people I feel uncomfortable with), I get an ache in my throat.


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29 Sep 2011, 6:14 am

I've no idea how I sound, but I've not been called monotone for a while now.


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arielhawksquill
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29 Sep 2011, 6:22 am

A friend in the Netherlands once told me that Americans talk as if they are singing, with so many changes in tone. (Personally, Dutch sounded sing-song to me, because it goes up-and-down-and-up-and-down in a repeated pattern of tones with little variation in range.)



amojak
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29 Sep 2011, 6:57 am

monotone... I can drive the most tolerant listener to look for exits if i get into the waffle mode zone :)

Like the other post though i can detect very subtle changes in nuance in another persons voice, even if they are trying to hide it.

actually knowing what to do with that information is another story though..

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29 Sep 2011, 9:28 am

I talk in a monotone. Even when I am angry and I shout, I still have the same pitch throughout my sentence.


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29 Sep 2011, 1:18 pm

I have never really been into using vocal inflections.