2023.08.31 – 0973 – The Whining Voice
Whining voice
Symptom: As you might expect, this sound is related to the ‘unnatural pitch’ described above. It too is a higher-pitched voice, with the added issue of elongated words, especially vowels, and often additional nasality. Those vowels may ‘whine’ on a steady pitch, or rise and fall similar to a police siren. Put all that together and the speaker may be perceived as speaking like a petulant child: “I doooooon’t waaaaan’t tooooooo-er”.
Prescription:
· Listening back to a recording of yourself and identifying this issue is the first step to eliminating it from your vocal personality. Concentrate on speaking with short, more succinct vowel sounds, perhaps highlighting on a script where these may potentially occur.
· The higher pitch can be partly solved by using the techniques under ‘forced pitch’ above.
· Nasality often means that too much air is being diverted through the nasal cavity while speaking. Look at the advice on that above, or get personal diagnosis and advice from a professional speech therapist.
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