The Human Voice

April 24, 2006
This lively and intelligent guide reveals how powerfully and pervasively the human voice shapes our everyday world. Karpf, a British sociologist and columnist for the Guardian,
engages with current research while interspersing intimate, reflective interviews with friends and relatives. In linguistics, the medium of voice traditionally receives short shrift, as Karpf points out: "We raid speech for its semantic meaning, and then discard the voice like detritus, leftovers." Karpf begins by demystifying the physical components of voice. She explores babies' capacity to recognize voices and their innate ability to focus on the rhythm of speech. Karpf then explores the psychological dimensions of voice, including how our voices change in different circumstances: when talking to oneself, say, or to pets. Tackling gender, Karpf speculates on why women's voices have deepened significantly over the last 50 years (to sound more trustworthy, i.e., masculine). Looking at voices in a global context, she notices that volume means different things in different cultures: "Arabs sound loud to Americans, and Americans not loud enough and insincere to Arabs." As clear and accessible as a good radio series, Karpf's fluent study provides an excellent introduction to an often-overlooked subject.