7 ms·
What I always found interesting how children in the US sound "shrill" to my European ear, I think children have much lower voices here in Europe (Germany). Anyo
by _Codemonkeyism 7y ago
What I always found interesting how children in the US sound "shrill" to my European ear, I think children have much lower voices here in Europe (Germany). Anyone else with the same perception? Or is it just in my imagination?
- devnulloverflow 7y agoMost versions of the American accent are a bit nasal compared to other English speakers, so I guess that makes it higher pitched on average -- even if I wouldn't call it "shrill". Also, there is no a neat separation between nasal Americans and other English speakers. Many Australians are also quite nasal, whereas black Americans (unless you count Steve Urkel) don't strike me as nasal at all. On the third hand: I find the Irish accent is higher pitched than most, without sounding either nasal or shrill. But Americans often sound a lot like the Irish, so that might also make them higher pitched.
- froh 7y agoIndeed there seem to be pitch differences between languages, and between regions of the same language. Don't know about kids, but here is some data for adults: https://erikbern.com/2017/02/01 https://erikbern.com/2017/02/01 /language-pitch.html
- bonoboTP 7y agoInteresting link. As a Hungarian I can definitely confirm that foreign women's speech does seem overly high-pitched. Especially in English, but also in German to some degree. In a similar way as Americans in general come across as overly fakey-smiley positive, to me, subjectively, women's speech in English feels over-the-top. (Don't get offended, I'm just describing perceptions) To be more concrete, here's a random example of what sounds natural in Hungarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm0DWhDk06s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm0DWhDk06s