What's in a voice?

As an avid reader I always imagine the voice of the person almost before I have read what they have to say. At the risk of sounding like I am of an unhealthy mind, the voices inside my head have accents, huskiness and habits such as vocal pauses and even throat clearing!

Now, when I am reading a post on your blog I also imagine what your voice sounds like. I don't hear my voice, I hear your voice. For example for some bloggers, I can almost hear proper English accents, and very calm but reassuring voices. I picture another blogger's voice to have a bit of huskiness and a full American accent with a bit of speed to her words. I imagine another of my favourite bloggers to be precise with her words, albeit a little cheeky! A special lady blogger, in my mind, has a softly spoken and kind voice. I think of one particular blogger as having a voice that is subtley high pitched with a mix of accents from both her native and new countries.

One blogger-friend has one of my favourite accents (the New Zealand accent) and I imagine her to speak in a very matter of fact but friendly way. For some bloggers I can hear a genteel southern American accent, with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for fun. I especially love the wonderfully round Canadian accent which I think is one of the easiest accents to hear. I even add a bit of an assertive manner to some bloggers' voices. Then there are those bloggers who I imagine to have a youthful and cute voice with words coming out at a 100 miles per hour! Other bloggers' voices have accents from their countries of origin (be it China, Greece, Italy, Russia, Germany, France, Egypt, South Africa, Japan, Spain, South America, oh and the list goes on!). There is one blog I frequent which places me almost in a trance as soon as I imagine the blogger's voice, with its calm nature carrying a wisdom as well. I think she has the sort of voice I could listen to for a while.

And, how could I not love a good Australian accent [as if there's a bad one!;-)], that is fuss-free, but very friendly. I also picture some Aussie accents in a larrakin kind of way, no nonsense but also fun. Other bloggers have reached into the world of sound via YouTube and as I listen to their voices, it is quite a surprise when they have a voice in the way I always imagined (for one particular blogger it was a bit of huskiness). Of course there are others who sound absolutely nothing like I imagined them to be.

As I write this post, thoughts about my German pen-pal, whom I came into contact with via a school program when I was in 5th grade, come to mind. I was immensly excited at the thought of communicating with someone from a completely different country, a different hemisphere to mine and, with almost giddiness, imagined what her voice would sound like! I also consider how grateful I am to be in an age where I can, in fact, be in direct contact with people of virtually every country on our Earth. Many, many times we have heard it stated about the internet, but I will say it again: How wonderfully good is it? Well, I say Bloody Marvelous, in my loud, Australian-accented, but friendly voice!

Have you ever thought about how your voice or accent sounds to others?