Discover how your voice reflects your identity and influences your profession. A listener training to teach learns vocal techniques from a speech tutor, enhancing clarity and authenticity. Explore the cultural and physical factors that shape voice—could climate affect how loudly we speak? A surprising sailing tale adds intrigue, while practical exercises with tongue twisters highlight the balance of natural talent and practice in vocal expression. Join this engaging journey into the art and science of the human voice!
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insights INSIGHT
Voice Shaping Factors
Physiology, like tongue shape, teeth, and larynx size, affects voice quality.
Gendered voice characteristics are influenced by both biology and learned behavior.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Loud Talking in Eswatini
Peter from Canada finds people in Eswatini speak loudly, especially compared to the quiet Canadian Arctic.
Patience, an Eswatini native, confirms they are generally loud but not unusually so compared to other southern African countries.
insights INSIGHT
Environmental Impact on Language
Data on loudness across countries is limited, but linguistic patterns are likely influenced by environment.
Drier climates correlate with less sonorous languages with fewer vowels and more consonants to minimize vocal cord exposure to dry air.
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Maybe you have a deep, booming voice. Or perhaps it’s light and mellifluous. Some people’s voices are honey-smooth while others are as rough as gravel. But why does your voice sound the way it does?
CrowdScience listener Hannah in Berlin is training as a teacher and will be using her voice a lot in the classroom in future. She wants to understand more about it: how can she improve the quality of her voice and protect it? And what factors - physical, genetic and environmental - determine the sound of your voice in the first place?
Together with presenter Marnie Chesterton, Hannah pays a visit to speech tutor Prof Viola Schmidt at the Ernst Busch University for the Performing Arts in Berlin. Viola and actor Aurelius give us a masterclass in just what your voice can do, as they throw words and sounds to each other across the rehearsal room at a dizzying pace. And Viola gives Hannah a few top tips on using her voice clearly and authentically in the classroom.
Hannah’s isn’t the only voice-related question in this episode. Peter from the Kingdom of Eswatini thinks people there speak more loudly than in other countries, and wonders why. To answer Peter’s question we turn to Prof Caleb Everett from the University of Miami. The jury’s out on whether people in some countries really do turn up the volume, but Caleb shares evidence of a link between the climate of a particular region and the sound of its native language.
And finally, listener Jonathan has an unusual question for Marnie. When listening to CrowdScience, he can’t tell whether he’s hearing Marnie or fellow presenter Caroline Steel. This got him wondering whether it’s common for two people to sound very similar. Marnie gives Caroline a call, and together they set out to discover if your voice really is unique to you. Caroline tracks down a forensic speech scientist - Dr Jess Wormald from the University of York in the UK – while Marnie speaks to Dr Melanie Weirich from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. And both experts agree that Jonathan may be onto something!
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton with Caroline Steel
Producer: Jeremy Grange
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald
CrowdScience