Have you ever deliberately changed your normal speaking voice?

[Sandyoldshoes]

Just wondering?

Whenever I hear my recorded voice it sounds so annoying!!

I’ve been playing with my phone recording different voices and I reckon a few small changes and I would sound much better. But will people notice or think I’ve gone mad?! Will it sound fake?

If you have done this please share your experiences!

This would be a permanent change.

Trying to make mine huskier 😭😭😭, being serious

A woman my mum used to work with did. My mum knew her years ago when she had a very regional accent and now she has a much posher, singy singy voice.

I have deepened my voice a little bit, not a Elizabeth Holmes level affectation though. My normal voice and accent comes through when I'm excited/happy lol.

I'd like to sound less husky! I'm Northern though and all Northern women seem to have deep voices 🫤

I know what you mean about listening to your recorded voice though. I only sound different when I'm speaking a different language, for some reason I talk in a higher pitch 🤔

Yeah, used to have a job that requires a lot of quite high-tension telephone interactions and I found if I spoke a bit lower and slower than I normally do, with clearer pronunciation (I'm quite northern but most of our callers were from London so I dampened my accent a bit) people chilled out and listened to me better.

I have a posher phone voice for work but I couldn’t keep it up all the time. I once had an entire conversation with my cousin before we realised as we were both doing our phone voice 😂

Not permanently (that I’m aware!!) but I definitely have different voices for different occasions 😅

My ‘teacher voice’ is very different to my ‘out with friends’ voice. 😂

I have very definitely changed my accent…though this wasn’t a conscious thing. I’m northern (Manchester) but haven’t lived there in over 40 years. When I go back to visit relatives, my accent is noticeably ‘not Manchester’ (and they let me know this and say I sound ‘posh’!). However, where I live now, people tell me I have a ‘north-ish’ accent but they can’t place where…I suspect it’s more to do with certain words/phrases that place me as ‘northern’ rather than my accent. Eg I will say breakfast/dinner/tea, bacon butty, barmcake…🤷‍♀️

My ‘accent’ changes to match anyone with whom I speak. It’s entirely unconscious and as an adult has got me into trouble a few times.

DM claims that it was obvious who I had been playing each day when I got home from school.

The relevance to this thread is that if I try to stop it, very odd things happen to my voice. I guess I’m just used to it now.

I live abroad and in order to be understood have had to adopt a much much more neutral accent than the one I naturally use 😬

i will take deep and husky over high pitched and shrill or girlie any day

I do speak slightly differently with clients at work.
not day to day with my colleagues but definitely during meetings with clients. Just a bit more ‘mum’s telephone voice’ 😂

I don't live in my childhood home town , and I have often been told I have a lovely ( been told posh ) voice without any real regional accent .
I grew up in a West country council estate , I have never intentionally changed my voice and my mum has the expected regional voice.

Honestly? Pretty much everyone hates listening to recordings of their own voice.

Re changing the way you speak - it depends. If you decide that speaking more slowly and slightly deeper would make you easier to understand then perhaps fair enough. If it is anything else, though, it may not have the result you want.

I am biased as I have some hearing loss. People who distort their voices are really hard to understand. It can be embarrassing to say “I’m sorry but I can’t understand you” to someone who speaks in a near-whisper or uses a lot of vocal fry - and I am honestly not trying to be an arse.

My voice has quite an edge / harsh flatness to it but neutral accent, already low. New voice is from a bit higher in the throat and slightly more rounded sounding, a bit warmer. I think!

My DF talks in a significantly more posh way (phrasing and pronunciation) in the last 10-15 years. But he now moves in posher circles than he did when I was young! So it’s possible. But I think anyone who knows you will be a bit confused.

I do have an unintentional “phone voice” I use when answering the phone at work which is apparently so unlike my normal voice that my DH didn’t recognise me!

Yes. Whenever I have to make a tannoy announcement at work I use my “tannoy voice”. People never know it’s me because I have a very strong Welsh valleys accent usually and sound totally different.

Sort of.
As a child we lived up north. My parents came from the midlands, so we picked up their accents rather than the local one.

Having a semi-southern accent in a northern school marks you out, and not in a good way. I was called posh and all sorts, and no, it wasn't in an affectionate way.

So when I went to secondary, I decided to change to the local accent.

Interestingly my siblings have stayed up north - but both still have their southern accent (and yes, they did get as much, if not more hassle than I did) and I sound more northern as a general rule, especially if I've gone back home to visit.
I've never had any hassle in either the midlands or south for my accent (never more than "where do you come from with that accent?") so I've never tried to change.

Oh I love a northern accent - hate my high pitched london one 😄

My very regional accent has had the edges knocked off having lived 20+ years in another country but it comes back with a vengeance whenever I speak to someone from back home. The tone of my voice is the same though, as far as I know.

I get more squeaky when I'm angry, my long forgotten Scouse emerges 😂

I’d like to sound like Vanessa Redgrave. Like how she talks at the end of call the midwife.
Or Joanna Lumley but it wouldn’t work.

It’s not my accent I want to change, it’s my voice.

I do this too, I can’t help it. I frequently slide into Glaswegian at work and I’m not from Glasgow 😂

When I worked with Dubliners I had a decent Irish accent too. It’s not an affectation. I get it. It just happens.