After hearing a female comedian on Sirius this morning, I thought “why do they all sound like that?” There seems to be a special Seinfeldesque accent or inflection, used when most of them perform.
What about other occupations or fields where practitioners have a trademark inflection? Some others that come to mind include:
[ul][li]Airline pilots, who all seem to imitate Chuck Yeager [/li][li]DJs at strip clubs[/li][li]Elementary school teachers[/li][li]Ma Bell-era telephone operators, as parodied by Lily Tomlin[/li][li]OTR truck drivers - even those who hail from the Northeast have a grizzled Appalachian inflection when they’re on the CB[/li]Mental health professionals and social workers, as often parodied on King of the Hill. Yes, I’ve met many a shrink with a Sensitive New Age Accent.[/ul]
Radio announcers (of which I am one) speak in a “special” way that no one does in real life. If I talked like that in public, people would want to slap me! Fortunately, I am aware of this. Much of what makes my voice sound so different coming out of the radio has to do with dynamic compression in the software that I use to record my voice, and in the processing equipment en route to the transmitter. When people find out it’s me, and ask me to do that voice, I can’t replicate it. There is such an appreciable difference between how I sound on the radio and in real life, that I have only been recognized by my voice twice in 3 1/2 years at this station.
I didn’t mention radio voices, but now that you bring it up, I’ve noticed some distinct radio inflections or accents, depending on the format.
[ul][li]The soft-spoken, pretentious classical DJ[/li][li]The trademark local NPR affiliate announcer voice[/li][li]The sports talk voice, which I call the ultimate Jim Rome clone[/ul][/li]
I’m curious about the truck driver accent, and why they all sound like grizzled parrots from Appalachia, even when they’re from other parts of the country. Listen to the introduction to the song Convoy - that’s an unmistakable truck driver accent.
My husband has Polite Phone Voice. I love calling him at work. After does the, “Hello thank you for call the Eyeglasses Barn* my name is Hubert** how may I help you?” spiel I say, “Hello, Polite Phone Voice Man!”
That’s how he knows it’s me.
Not his actual place of work.
** Not his actual name.
Golf announcers. Pretending to speak softly, like they’re not sitting 100 feet above the green in a crane and there’s no way the golfers can hear them, then going utterly silent during the backswing.
“[sub]…and now here’s Vijay Singh…he’s got a pretty good look at the slope of the green…looks like a 9-iron…<silence> [thwack!]…[/sub]…and he’s put that one RIGHT on the flagstick! Brilliant!”
Jeeze, I forgot about NPR. When flipping through channels, I can peg NPR instantly just from the announcer, before I even hear what they’re talking about.
