The Varied Intonations of Verbal Communication.

I wanted to bring up a very intriguing thing that I have noticed throughout my life:
How people change their tone of voice depending on who they are talking to.

Let me give an example. Two guys are hanging out. Their names are Z and Q. Z and Q are talking like how 2 guy friends do, with some gruffyness and manliness in their voices. Z gets a call from his girlfriend. When he answers his phone, his tone of voice drastically changes into a sweet softer tone.

Do you ever notice this? I find it to be very interesting how that happens. Another example is when someone is talking to a baby. I definitely notice how my voice changes when I talk to my doggy. "Oh, look at da puppy, puppy!" that is how I sound.

So basically I was wondering if anyone else has seen this phenomenon in action. Next time someone answers their phone, try and guess who they are talking to based on their tone of voice.

-Sol

One crappy aspect of the internet is that it is hard to express tone of voice. However, choice of words is a good way of getting your intention and tone across.

I'm going to keep adding to this thread hopefully when it gets some replies. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen to post this thread in the middle of the night. Oh well.

-Sol

Hey dude, this side of the globe the sun's shining, birds are singing some people are working... Your observations are spot on. This is what we do, we have different voices for each person we communicate with!

Though I may not be very skilled at intentional intonation I do know that it can be more influential than the words you choose to use when speaking in a one on one situation.

I do know that I use a different voice in different situations. For example, yelling at someone to prevent injury in the face of eminent danger is on one end of the spectrum and consoling my niece when she gets a boo boo is on the other. The two voices can not be any more different.

The first is about control, dominance and immediate compliance to hopefully prevent the subject from soon to be injury, the second is a calming and assuring voice, with just the littlest touch of confidence and power, to tell her that she will be and is ok, that accidents happen and it is something to learn from.

Edited twice: Once to add 2nd and 3rd paragraphs and a second time to correct imminent to eminent. At least I caught my mistake.

[edit on 7-7-2010 by sporkmonster]

The tone of your voice can completely change the meaning of what you say.

Often times it is not what you say, it is how you say it.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


i think one major reason people change how they are talking to one another from person to person is in most part due to their religious beliefs, and th.

e effects religions ideologies affect the masses capacity to cope with reality.

for instant take christianity.

"do unto others as you would have done unto you"

yet .... most christians do not treat everyone the same.

they do not talk to their boss the same way they talk to their neighbor.

they do not talk to their mother the same way they talk to their co-workers.

they do not treat their children like they treat their best friends...

so in effect most of the christian community does the opposite of christ's commandment to do unto others as you would have done unto you.

in effect if christians do not treat everybody the same, then according to their religious principals they do not want everyone else to treat them like they are the same.

in short

christians = anti-christs.

but who am i and what do i know?
ET

Originally posted by SolarE-Souljah
One crappy aspect of the internet is that it is hard to express tone of voice. However, choice of words is a good way of getting your intention and tone across.

I'm going to keep adding to this thread hopefully when it gets some replies. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen to post this thread in the middle of the night. Oh well.

-Sol

That lack of tone of voice over the internet can be seen here on ATS every day. It can be difficult to choose the right words to get the correct point across. The choosing of the wrong words can often lead into arguments that can end up dragging out for pages on this great site. The lack of intonation seems to sometimes lead to misunderstanding on every form of visual text. Though it seems most prevalent today in forums and instant communication style chatting.


I'm an american night owl. I liked the thread so I responded. Ya know it does seem like around prime time television in the USA is also the prime time for threads started on ATS. 5PM pacific coast time is 8PM east coast time. The short time period where much of the country is not at work or in bed at the same point in current time.

now that i'm done with my little rant i realize i forgot to let the op know:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/97e00709fa87.png[/atsimg]

yes, people change their tone of voice thinking it changes what is being said rather than televising their personal intentions.

But sometimes i wonder if the longer people are on this planet, the dizzier they seem to get.

but yes, there are ways to convey ideas, creativity, and imagination, on ATS without the tones of voice.

i think,
ET

I learned that tone of voice when talking to dogs is a very big deal.

What I mean by that is I can be saying, "That's a good stinky dog! Look at the cute stinky, stinky doggy!" in a happy tone, and my dog won't know I'm saying that she smells really bad.

It is really all about tone of voice, no matter how you look at it, no matter what situation. You might even be able to pick up on the general idea and mood of a person who speaks a different language just based on their tone of voice. I find it all to be very fascinating.

-Sol

I also like how one can say the same word, but mean completely different things depending on the tone of voice that they use.

Example:

"Doggy... " in a stern voice means doggy is in trouble.

"Doggy!" in a happy voice means doggy gets to be petted.

-Sol

I experienced myself doing this just today.

I was on the phone with a male, and my voice was all gruff and deep.

Then I was talking to a cashier today and my voice was all nice and sweet.

It's interesting I say.