Talking Points

Over on the LOCI boards we've been having this discussion about voices. Got me thinking about how few people pay attention to the pitch of their voices - or anyone else's. Sure, people (most people) tend to worry about volume. Bellowing is generally considered rude in the library, for example. But it turns out, based on our conversation, that people have no idea how their pitch affects their voices. Now, anyone who has done a lot of performing will tell you that higher pitches carry further than lower ones. (Yet another reason why being a soprano is more fun.) But this holds true in normal conversation too, which people don't seem to realize. And then there is something that people who work with animals know - lower pitches tend to convey displeasure, and higher ones excitement or happiness.

So in light of all this, I have been roaming around the libraries listening to people talk. I find it fascinating that there are people out there who do high pitched shrieking when attempting to calm their children, or drop their pitch along with their volume and then wonder why no one can hear them. And I have also been having fun listening to accents and weird speech patterns. Because of course I don't have one, being from Connecticut - but everyone else does. (Do you know, someone actually told me a few days ago that he visited Connecticut once, and "no one up there has any accent at all!" He seemed very excited about this. I'm not sure where he went, though, because I can usually tell where in CT someone is from by how they say certain words.)