Do you change your voice based on who you're talking to? (See, if I'm writing that sentence thinking that my mom would read it, it would have been thus: "Do you change your voice based on the person to whom you're talking?") Do you change your vocabulary or even your accent? Obviously most of us talk differently to small children than we do to adults. Most of us also subconsciously edit our speech for more sensitive ears. For example, if you're talking to a nice ladylike woman, the phrases "screwed up" and "that sucks" are conspicuously absent in most cases, right? If you don't do such editing, do you edit other more explicit words?
I change my voice quite a bit when I'm talking to people of different ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities. In fact, my prejudices about a person probably evidence themselves somewhat by my voice, vocabulary, and accent when I address them. That's a bit embarrassing. But on the more amusing side, Cindy can almost always tell who the person is on the other end of the phone conversation with me. It's more pronounced with some people than others: I have a distinct voice I use when talking to my grandpa. There's another one for when I'm talking to my mom, and another for my dad. My sisters get a completely different voice.
Also, I have a theory that may be a bit spurious, but I think it has some basis in fact. I watched a DVD of myself teaching in a Sunday morning worship service here in El Dorado Springs, and I think I can tell with a fair degree of accuracy which group of people in the congregation I'm looking at at any one time by the change in my voice. If I'm looking at one of the old-timer Missourians, my southern Missouri drawl thickens and I draw a bit of my vocabulary from my dad's Tennessee roots. If I'm looking at youth group members, I do a lousy imitation of a surfer dude. If I look at Aaron Ash or Randy J. Bland, my vocabulary suddenly improves.
What's with that?
