Thursday, March 19, 2009

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?

5 comments:

Lilly said...

Absolutely I have and for some reason I always get a shock when I hear the accent. I think we should do more audio or video on blogs really. What fun that would be.

Rosaria Williams said...

Good morning, (from my perch, it is almost daylight here in the
Westernmost point of the U.S. I dropped in from Normal is a cycle on a washing machine. Your title caught my ear.

Darla said...

Thank you for the terrific post card that arrived at my house yesterday!

I said that in my Northern California Voice (with a little Oregon beginnings left over). That is not at all like a Southern CA or a Valley Girl voice.

When I hear my taped voice I'm always surprised at how S.L.O.W. I talk. It is a wonder I don't put people to sleep.

Darla

Suko said...

Not literally, that is, not the actual sound of the voice, although now I think I will try (although when I read out loud to children, I might put on funny accents and such.) Hmm, I'm not hearing anything. . .I need more practice to hear your voice.

Mervat said...

Lilly: I think that if we did away with written posts and did vocal ones it might be a nice change...then my kids would definitely NOT listen to my blog! They get enough of me on a day to day basis!

lakeviewer: Welcome! Sounds terrific where you are!

Darla: You are so welcome! Love the description of your voice, and I am sure it is not slow!

Suko: Welcome & Thanks! Reading out loud to kids is the best way to try out those accents we all love to do...great excuse anyway ;) !!

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