Human Voice: The Story of a Remarkable Talent [Hardcover]

Anne Karpf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2006

We live in an age when a hi-tech gadget that could reveal a person's size, height, weight, gender, sexual orientation, social class and race in less than sixty seconds sight unseen is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Yet, as Anne Karpf's engrossing book reveals, this amazing instrument already exists and has done for centuries. It is the human voice - the key to communication and our ability to read between the emotional lines. 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 to 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 recognize the emotion in another person's voice with in sixty milliseconds of first hearing them speak. Whether revealing the evocative power of famous voices or facing the fear that modern technology may render the human voice redundant, this fascinating book makes it clear that today, more than ever, the voice is the most important sound in our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Karpf, a sociologist and BBC journalist, argues that although much attention has been paid lately to speaking styles, surprisingly little focus has been on the voice itself. Here, in lively prose, she goes a long way toward filling that gap. The author discusses the mechanics of the sounds people make; what distinguishes human sounds from those of other animals; the effects of emotions on voices; cultural and gender differences; and how technology has been changing the ways we express ourselves. Hot current topics such as voiceprinting and the importance of voice in the workplace are addressed, as are the social effects of cell phones and musical experimentation on the new "audio-aware generation." Karpf shines a clear light on Hitler's speaking style and shows how crowds were manipulated by it. Through analyses of Tony Blair and the American politicians Reagan, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and both Presidents Bush, she challenges readers to understand what they are really hearing in the voices of today's politicians-where, she asserts, the voice is no longer an instrument for argument, but for seduction. This is fine popular-science writing, and it will leave teens with a fresh and useful perspective on an important aspect of life that might have been, until now, misunderstood or unquestioned.—Christine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Ltd; 1 edition (June 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747576491
• ISBN-13: 978-0747576495
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,783,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get to Know Your Instrument, August 23, 2006

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are (Hardcover)

Animals of all different kinds busy themselves with making noises in order to feed or mate or protect themselves. Humans are no different, but have taken the use of their anatomical noisemaking devices to extreme utility. Of course, this is tied to our use of language, and language is full of puzzling aspects, but so is the human voice when considered as an instrument or tool rather than just an auditory word delivery system. In _The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are_ (Bloomsbury), Anne Karpf looks at the importance of the voice to human society, and the paradoxical way that we take it for granted. Karpf skillfully takes us through many surprising aspects of how we use our voices, and cites many curious studies that have used clever tricks to make the voice give up its secrets; this isn't an academic treatise, but there are eighty pages of footnotes with sources from Aristotle to The Simpsons. She has done fifty interviews with people about their own voices, what they think about other people's voices, and how much information a voice can give them. It's a perfect subject for a book: everyone has a voice, everyone has intimate vocal connections to others, and everyone has more to learn about how it all works.

She begins with an examination of how our anatomy works to make the voice. Among the complexities of our vocal systems is that all the components have other functions rather than producing voices, functions that are vital to life while voice-making is a mere option. Teeth and tongue modify the voice, for instance, but they are really there (as they are in voiceless animals) for purposes of eating. We are programmed to recognize voices even before we are born. A baby within the uterus can react to some sounds as early as fourteen weeks on, and quickly becomes attuned to the mother's voice, which some studies show has a calming effect, slowing the fetal heart rate. After birth, a baby reliably reacts more to the voice of the mother than to anyone else. It is a familiar phenomenon that if one baby in a group starts crying, other babies will be likely to start to do so themselves, indicating that even infants have some programmed sympathy for the distress of others. It is fascinating, though, that a baby tends not to start crying if played a recording of its own cries, indicating a knowledge at birth of the difference between me and not-me. In the sixties, the word "voiceprint" was coined, and it was thought that each individual voice might be visually represented with the fidelity of fingerprints. Forensic identification of speakers, however, has required subjective opinions of experts in ways that fingerprints do not, and often such evidence has yet to be declared admissible in state courts. Part of the problem is that age, mood, and situation change our voices in ways that vary voiceprints out of identifiability.

Karpf has just mentioned key findings of many studies, not all of which are conclusive. She does express her doubts on studies such as those of professor Albert Mehrabian who supposedly found that 7% of the information conveyed by a voice consists of words and their meaning, while the rest of the communication comes from vocal and facial expression. Karpf generally campaigns, however, that the voice is more important than we have thought, and she is convincing. Her enthusiasm for her subject is readily apparent; she is eager to make sure the voice gets the recognition it deserves, and all who read this book will gain an increase of appreciation for their own voices and what voices can do for us. Karpf takes note, for instance, that some large firms are promoting "e-mail free Friday", whereby for one day a week e-mail will be ditched, with the aim that employees will begin talking and listening to each other.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Talkativeness is a mouth's fart" . . ., November 29, 2006

By 

Found Highways (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are (Hardcover)

. . . is a Japanese proverb that British sociologist Anne Karpf uses, along with scientific data, to show how one culture values silence (especially for female speakers, or non-speakers, as the case may be).

But just across the Bering Sea, Karpf found that Alaska Native Americans who were convicted of crimes got longer jail sentences when they spoke slower and paused more when speaking to non-Native police and judges (vocal behavior that would have been interpreted as respectful in Japan).

The voice, like so much else, is partly determined by nature and partly determined by culture. Karpf also shows many other ways that My Voice is determined by Your Ear.

So much in this entertaining book is pertinent today. Just yesterday I saw a headline in The Drudge Report that said WOMEN TALK 3 TIMES MORE THAN MEN. (Drudge does like his caps.) But Karpf quotes evidence rather than impression proving MEN TALK MORE!!! AND THEY INTERRUPT!!!!!

The most interesting section of the book for me was on "The Public Voice." Here Karpf eviscerates British and American politicians. Karpf is fair, analyzing politicians of the the left and right. I'm not fair, so I'll just quote Karpf on Tony Blair, whose voice has been "emotionally incontinent" ever since Diana died. And Blair has also puposefully stuck an "Estuary-style mini glottal stop" in his speech to add "blokeishness" to his voice.

But Blair's political voice is just one example of the "new intimacy" evinced by politicians in Britain and the U.S. They want to "act sincere," which is, as Karpf points out, a contradiction in terms. That reminds me of the old joke (was it Samuel Goldwyn who said it?): "The most important thing is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made."

The Human Voice is full of fascinating facts. For instance, opera singers make THEMSELVES deaf from listening to the vibrations of their own voices in their skulls. (Margaret Thatcher apparently ruined her voice by shouting down opponents in parliament. Whether she listened to what she was saying is an interesting question.)

There have been several great books on linguistics lately (by scientists who write well, not language scolds like Lynne Truss). There's David Crystal's new book How Language Works (the section on phonetics is good to read before or in conjunction with Anne Karpf's The Human Voice), and also Australian linguist Kate Burridge's Blooming English and Weeds in the Garden of Words.

But I'm definitely going to read anything else by Anne Karpf.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Not What we Say, It's How We Sound, February 7, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are (Hardcover)

This is quite a fascinating Pop-Science book on the voice. But the first thing you have to realize is the list of things that this book is not:

It is not on how the human body makes noises, although there's a little bit of that.

It is not on how the ability to speak separates us from the other animals on this planet.

It is not even on what words we use to express ourselves.

Instead it is a book on how our voice sounds. It's about the communication that takes place even when the words are removed. It's about how listening to politicians sound rather than listening to what they say. It's about how the way Churchill and Roosevelt, and yes, George W. Bush sound that got them elected rather than their opponents.

I was amused at her comments about Al Gore's stiff, sanctimonious monotone putting him at a disadvantage beside George Bush's vocal affability. Remembering back that was true. But now when you listen to Gore in his documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth,' he doesn't sound the same at all, like his comment about once being known as the 'Next President.'

Her reporting on the experiments where the actual words are removed from speech and people are asked questions about the speaker are especially interesting.

This is not a highly technical book, instead it is written for a popular audience but it lets you know what the pros are thing about and doing.