Why Does My Voice Sound Like This?

Dr. Tina Lasisi has strange encounters with the production team and notices their voices are quite...different. Is there a glitch in the matrix, or is this our final episode of 'Why Am I Like This?'— In this episode, Dr. Lasisi talks us through how the structure of our vocal tract produces sound, how accents are learned, and why we seem to be the only species to "speak."

"Why am I like this?" is a show hosted by biological anthropologist Tina Lasisi, and produced by STEMedia, that dives deep into evolutionary biology to explain some of our existentialism and everyday questions about our body.

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[LoveHandle]

It’s all fun and games until you hear a recording of yourself.

[shawnholbrook]

My ex had a British accent in high-school, thanks to documentaries. I moved often, , so I catch accents like crazy. I really enjoyed this program.

[glomi__]

the bloopers make me wonder about laughter; do groups of people have distinct laughs? why do some laughs feel like they belong to personalities vs others? how do our laughs develop and how do they inform our identities?

[hazbaska]

Her personality is so fun — loved this video

[fidelitylive]

This is great. Super informative. Funny and can relate to a wide audience!

[ershaizmi]

Please maore of this series. I love it when I saw the notification from you guys. Everything was soooo informative yet fun to watch. You're amazing!

[Simply_Deanna_]

People tell me I have an accent that sounds like I was born in Africa or the Caribbean somewhere. They are always surprised to learn no one in my family for was born there. I have lived around both cultures for years. Then there are the people that tell me I have that stereotypical “Minnesota” accent😂

[avariceseven]

I'm a gay guy but I don't try to make my voice sound girly or gay-ish but almost every time I call costumer support of various companies, they'd call me "ma'am" even if I try to lower my voice and sometimes even if I tell them my name, which isn't for girl at all. It's so absurd sometimes when they call me "ma'am <male name>". I don't usually correct them but they sometimes apologize or more often, pretend nothing was wrong. It's hilarious.

[skyler]

I appreciate how inclusive you were when talking about the effects of puberty.

[xtieburn]

I figured the reason why you cant hear your accent is because accents are relative. I.e. if everyone spoke with the same Scottish accent the concept of an accent wouldnt exist.
but the way that section was written in the video suggests that there is a way of speaking with no accent by any standard. I.e. if everyone spoke with a particular Scottish accent, theyd still be able to identify it as one of the Scottish accents by comparison to some hidden baseline way of speaking underneath it.
Which makes me want to know what the truly accentless would sound like.

[平和-vz]

This style of video is elite, keep up the awesome content!

[nancyscott]

I've learned I have linger vocal cords.

Query: why do female voices lower as they age?

[prettypic]

it's so weird how people pick up accents after living somewhere for a period of time. my mom and her roommate went on a student exchange from California to Iowa when they were in college. my mom retained her California accent while her roommate picked up an Iowa accent!

[memathews]

Bloopers! Oops, bring *Not Famous: Just Well Known* shirt guy back for Season 2 so he can try again 🤣

[DenizenoftheAges]

Love your videos and love sharing them. Biggest criticism: You talk a FAST. People I share with commonly respond that first. That aside, thank you for sharing these nuggies of knowledge. Look forward to the next one.

[hjames]

Being from Philadelphia people say i say water funny when i leave 😂

[kellydalstok]

Lots of people are incapable of learning to speak an other language properly, because they are unable to reproduce the sounds that aren’t present in their own language properly. This has nothing to do with age, because I’ve heard plenty of young Dutch people with an abominable pronunciation of English, and my dad spent two weeks in England twice at 19 and 20 years old and went to Britain on holiday practically every year from 1974 onwards, yet never improved on the pronunciation he learned in school. Although in English speakers it seems like they’re not that interested in the proper pronunciation of foreign words and names; Van Gogh and Van Leeuwenhoek are almost unrecognizable when butchered by English speakers.

[starmaker]

Just to think to other animals, we are this primate that makes so many weird noises

[jhosuaowenbatucan]

I've been training a lot and still sound awful and one of my clue why is because when I was a child I used to cough and most of the time when I cough it would seem like I'm coughing my lung out that it starts to bleed.

[crazypedia]

That was fun to watch and educational 😃