Do races have different voices?

Please stop getting all PC. We are looking at this from a SCIENTIFIC viewpoint. Scientific facts, not good, not bad, not anything other than simple facts.
The next step will be to deny that black people have a different colour of skin compared with white people!

I raised a similar question here about two years ago, got very little feedback.
Yeah, "voice pitch, Sep 9, 2007"
< The bone structure …the nasal cavity …the size of the vocal cords> - rubbish.
A tiny Chinese-looking American who was born in the US may have a very deep voice, which is characteristic for – I dare say- most male Americans. I’ve always wondered why.
Listen to people from India – thin and stout, short and tall, round- and oval-faced – they all squeak.
Children just grow up imitating the voices that surround them, exceptions are few.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApZ0lqGIF74

Very beautiful, thanks.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAj9R3BwhCw&feature=PlayList&p=FC6FFD47CFBDDC5B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

Sumi Jo has a beautiful instrument. Some people (Americans) have complained that Asians have a "white" sound, but this is not the same thing as a "white" person's voice. It has more to do with the school of singing or the timbre, I think.

Although it may be true in some cases, I think it may also go along with the thinking that Asians cannot truly play the music of European masters with feeling.

I think it has more to do with the individual performer than being unable to feel the music musically. I miss nothing when I've seen Ozawa perform and Sumi Jo is also a delight.

< The bone structure …the nasal cavity …the size of the vocal cords> - rubbish.

I disagree, but if you are an ENT specialist, I'll be glad to hear you out on this.

KT, it just seems like common sense, doesn't it? All a person has to do is look at the skulls. Voices resonate either through the bones we see, or the cavities we don't.

So the argument comes down to this: Do we believe one man who says there are no races, or do we believe our lying eyes and ears?

An analogy: is the sun REALLY yellow? ;)

The quality of one's voice relative to race has little, to do with pitch and even less to do with accent. What this has to do with is the SOUND itself. As mentioned before, you can tell the differerence between a trombone and a trumpet, even though they are playing the same note. It is also possible to play a high note on a trombone while at the same time be playing a low note on a trumpet, but that does not mean that you won't necessarily be able to tell which instrument is which. Of course human beings are far more complicated than this, so there can be some overlap, but generally speaking and not overgeneralizing, there are well known undeniable physical differences among typical Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid skulls that can contribute to the sound differences that many people are able to recognize.

Sure, anomalies exist, in the population and there are bound to be people whose skulls may fall into more than one category, which is not surprising, but they are the exception rather than the rule. That however does not change the *fact* that the physical differences being discussed in this thread exist and contribute to the differences in people's voices that so many of us who are used to dealing with different races are well able to notice.

<<Please read some more, people!
It seems like none of you has ever heard about the fact that from a genetical point of view, there certainly is no such thing as races (like breeds with animals) amongst humans. >>

I think everyone here reads plenty, Reader. All the posters have been thoughtful and well-reasoned in their posts.

From a taxonomic standpoint, you are entirely correct. In taxonomy, a race is a subspecies, and there is currently only one human subspecies alive today: Homo sapiens sapiens. All people, whatever their color, are included in it.

We get that.

There are, however, several distinct physical varieties within that subspecies that have developed in different geographic regions over time, and these varieties are commonly termed "races", even if that is not the proper taxonomic word. It's still the vernacular definition of "race", and that's thge only way that it is being used here. If you would like to select a different term to substitute when you see this word, please feel free.

I grew up in a predominantly-white area in Surrey, UK. My mum is from Trinidad and Tobago and my dad is (black) British. When visiting family in areas where more black people lived, my cousins would tease me and say that i sounded white and posh.

When I was 12 I moved to Trinidad because my mum wanted to come back. People here accused me of "wanting to be white" and many people are surprised at my appearance when they see me. The same applies for my father. My mum even told me that when we lived in England she would always ask my dad to book restaurant reservations since whenever she called, they would be able to tell she was black and give us the worst seats!

So I would say, at times people cannot listen to you speak and determine your race, whilst at other times, race can be told from just a few words.

Obama's black heritage can DEFINITELY be determined from his speech... DESPITE the fact that he is well-educated. Mine however... may not be so easily fortold.

Of course they do. I am not very good at English yet, but I can easily recognize whether the person who is speaking is white or black- after just one word.
Asians born in the U.S. sounds to me the same as white Americans, however...

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<Obama's black heritage can DEFINITELY be determined from his speech>
Could you be more specific, please?
I don't find anything black in Obama's speech.

It's his voice.

Obama doesn't speak AAVE, but he's not exactly GenAm either. It is his voice, but he also has some nonstandard pronunciations...one that comes to mind is laxing of word-final unstressed [i].

Obama can actually manage both White resonances and Black resonances. He changes it depending on which audience he's addressing, if you haven't noticed.

When he goes to black churches and talks about African-Americans' internal problems, he adopts a voice with a lilt. That lilt, somewhat Southern-sounding, is very characteristic of African-American speech.

When talking to white interviewers, he adopts a more white-sounding resonance. He does this by making his voice sound a bit higher, or a bit more varied in pitch.

Keep in mind Obama's ancestry is 50% African and 50% White-European. So he does have the ability to modulate his voice in either direction.

Caucasians, Negroids, Mongoloids - what stupid terms! These are entirely unscientific and even worse than 'black' or 'white'. Are Europeans, North-Africans, Mid-Easterners and Hindus all came from the Caucasus? Nonsense!
And do Negroid differ only by their skin colour? Senegalese, Ethiopians, Kenyans and Khoisans are very different and why we call all of them 'blacks' or 'Negroids'? 'Mongoloids' are the same story. Disgusting! >(