The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are

Anne Karpf aims to establish a sense of the importance of the human voice and to investigate its physiological, social, psychological, emotional and cultural history and significance. Why has the female voice deepened over the last fifty years? Who talks more, men or women? How can a baby in the womb distinguish between different voices? The human voice is the personal and social glue that binds us, and the most important sound in our lives. The moment we open our mouth we leak information about our biological, psychological and social status. Babies use it to establish emotional ties and acquire language, adults to decode mood and meaning in intimate and professional relationships. Far from being rendered redundant by modern technology, the human voice has enormous and enduring significance "Beginning with a description of how the voice actually works, Anne Karpf goes on to investigate its vital role in the bonding of mothers and children, and eventually in all social interaction. She then opens the story out of explore the voice's psychological, social, emotional and cultural significance, investigating and challenging received wisdom of all kinds, from the stereotype of silent men and talkative women and the theory that only 7 per cent of our meaning is carried in the words we use, to the fascinating insight that children who have difficulty decoding voices are likely to be less popular with other children as early as kindergarten, and that we can recognise the emotion in another person's voice within sixty milliseconds of first hearing them speak."--BOOK JACKET Why has the female voice deepened over the last fifty years? Who talks more, men or women? How can a baby in the womb distinguish between different voices? The human voice is the personal and social glue that binds us, and the most important sound in our lives. The moment we open our mouth we leak information about our biological, psychological and social status. Babies use it to establish emotional ties and acquire language, adults to decode mood and meaning in intimate and professional relationships. Far from being rendered redundant by modern technology, the human voice has enormous and enduring significance. The Story of Remarkable Talent The extraordinary untold story of the human voice