Adenoids grow somewhere in the throat or air passageway and make your voice sound as though you were partially speaking through your nose.
Maria Bamford has a somewhat high-pitched voice and is very open about it. It’s not affected and not a “speech defect.” She doesn’t sound giggly, she just has a high, thin voice. In an interview with NPR she was once asked why she does so many voices in her act, and she said (paraphrasing) “The one I was born with wasn’t everything I could have hoped for.” And ironically she does lots a lots of character voices in her act that sound nothing at all like her natural voice.
He’s on record as saying the opposite:
…if you’re performing for broadcast, you don’t underline every third word for emphasis because it sounds really unnatural. What you want to do is you want to talk the way people normally talk.
Repeating this. There was absolutely no question that those particular women were using a higher pitched, more questioning, more breathy voice when in the presence of men; because I frequently heard them talking with men and also frequently heard them speaking with only women present, and the difference was striking. Men are unlikely to be aware of this code switching because they’re only going to hear one of the voices.
All of which my browser just tried to play for me at once . . .
While I can’t say for sure, not knowing the people, I don’t think Rubinstein or Dearie are doing that; I’m pretty sure those are their natural voices. I do think that both Adams and Tilly probably are. They’re also doing a sort of body language, probably meant to be sexy in a ‘wiggly little girl’ fashion, that I find hard to even watch; and it’s partly that context that makes me think that they’re doing the code switch voices. There are also differences in the type of intonation between the way they’re talking and the ways Rubinstein and Dearie are, though I’m finding it difficult to describe just what I’m hearing in the intonation.
Yes, I have enlarged adenoids or something like that, and it makes me sound like I have a permanent cold.
Yes, that is a much better explanation. I’ve not heard Glass at length in years, just short promos on NPR for “This American Life”.
The clips of Jennifer Tilly and Joey Lauren Adams were exactly what I thought from the OP.
It’s strictly about pitch, not vocabulary or mannerisms. I worked with a woman who talked this way. Until I got to know her, whenever I heard her over the wall, I would have sworn she wasa 4 year old.
Her voice didn’t change whether it was a mixed or all female group. Nor was she bubbly or flirtatious.
There certainly are some where it’s all pitch and not much accent / intonation.
There is another variation that non-expert me calls “pudgy cheek”. If you stiffen your cheek muscles so your cheeks kind of intrude between your teeth and try to talk (even in your normal register, male or female) the sounds that come out resemble a 2 or 3yo trying to talk. The enunciation is mushy and sibilant and a couple other oddities whose official terminology I don’t know
Lots of the high-pitched women have that vocal feature too. IME/IMO. I don’t see that they’re physiologically connected. A person ought to be able to be high- or low-pitched with or without “pudgy cheek” sounds. But there does seem to be a strong correlation. Which heavily contributes to the immature / incapable / helpless vibe these people put out. Probably much to their own annoyance, but that’s how it sounds to this audience member.
Mike Tyson has a little boy voice, tho I would never say that to his face.
ISTM that there are two issues being conflated. One is the high pitched voice. The other is that some women affect a very soft way of speaking that might be described as child-like. Not vocabulary, but tone.
A good example would be the Georgette Baxter character from the MTM Show.
Georgia Engel - Scene from The Mary Tyler Moore Show - YouTube
I think Bernadette from the Big Bang Theory counts as a “little girl” voice also.
Yes, she’s an actress speaking in a silly voice for the role. She has a normal voice in real life.
Kristin Chenoweth’s natural voice is a lot like this, as well. I’m posting two clips below: one from circa 2003 where she seems to be speaking extemporaneously and unguarded, and a second one from a 2021 episode of The View where she’s more “on” and perhaps conscious of her presentation.
She’s tiny - 4’11". And amazing singing talent.
She’s who came to mine for me in this thread, as well. She’s been quoted as saying, "‘I feel like I sound like a bug too. I feel like a combination of Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, and a five year old.’’
She’s also another example of a small woman with a high-pitched speaking voice; she’s 4’11".
Is there any scientific evidence that correlates size with voice pitch? Peter Dinklage would prove this false.
All he might prove is that it’s not a 100% correlation. Also, as previously noted upthread, when someone else mentioned Dinkage’s voice, the form of dwarfism which Dinklage has entails a normal-sized torso and head, but short limbs. Some other men with other forms of dwarfism, such as Warwick Davis, Billy Barty, and Herve Villechaize, do/did have higher-pitched voices.
This suggests a correlation:
Warwick Davis doesn’t sound high-pitched to me. Quite the opposite to my ear.
To my ear, while his voice isn’t as high as, say, Herve Villechaize, he still has a sort of a high creaky sound as a significant feature in his voice, and his voice isn’t what I’d consider to be “typical” for a person without dwarfism.