Voice

voice

an aggregate of sounds varying in pitch, volume, and timbre produced by the vocal apparatus in man and in animals that have lungs. Reflexes of throat muscles (sneezing, coughing) produce vocal sounds. Man uses his voice to express his sensations, feelings, and thoughts (shouting, laughing, crying, conversational speech, and singing).

There are both muscular-elastic and neuromuscular theories of phonation, the production of sounds by the voice. According to the muscular-elastic theory, the closing of the vocal cords marks the beginning of the production of any sound. Then the intertracheal pressure increases until it exceeds the tension of the vocal cords, causing the intertracheal air to break out of the larynx. The vocal cords begin to vibrate, producing resonance in the column of air above the vocal cords as well. The frequency of vibration depends on the length and tension of the vocal cords, which is in turn dependent on the functional condition of the muscles of the larynx.

According to the neuromuscular theory, the number of vibrations of the vocal cords per second corresponds to the number of impulses from the central nervous system.

The voice pitch depends on the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords, which in turn is determined by their length, thickness, and tension. The voice’s volume is determined by the amplitude of the vocal cord vibrations, which varies as a function of the strength of the stream of air passing over the vocal cords. Timbre is determined by the presence of overtones, which are produced largely in the resonating parts of the vocal apparatus. It is often possible to distinguish individuals by differences in voice timbre.

The development of the voice proceeds gradually (although quantitative leaps in development do occur), parallel to the general maturation of the organism and the central nervous and endocrine systems. The voice of all newborns and infants has the same pitch (A above middle C) and the same timbre; the only variation is in volume. With age the range of sounds widens in pitch and volume, and the timbre, which usually does not change until old age, begins to form. In old age the range of sounds narrows in both pitch and volume. The most radical change in the voice occurs at puberty—voice “breaking” or mutation. This period occurs at age 11–12 to 18–19 and lasts from five or six months to up to two or three and even five years. In this period the larynx of boys increases more than 1½ times in size, while the larynx of girls increases by one-third. Because of the hyperemia of the vocal cords, adolescents often experience excessive tiring when using their voices as well as hoarseness without apparent cause during the period of voice mutation.

Disturbances of the voice occur as a result of pathological changes in any part of the vocal apparatus, but most often as a result of dysfunction of the larynx. Often change of the voice function afflicts those using their voices professionally (singers, teachers). Overtiring is a common cause of voice loss, especially among children and adolescents as a result of loud conversation or singing. Singing music with a high tessitura that exceeds the voice’s normal age limits can also cause voice change. Voice changes may also occur as a result of diseases of the cardiovascular or nervous systems, resulting in changes that vary from slight hoarseness to complete aphonia.

the grammatical category of the verb that expresses different correlations of an action and its participants or different presentations of these relations in communication. For example, the reflexive voice expresses the identity of the subject and object of the action (on moetsia, “he washes [himself]” = on moet sebia, “he washes himself”); the reciprocal voice indicates that the participants of an action are simultaneously the subjects and objects (the Yukaghir fawyrek nangaindngi, “they began to shoot arrows at each other”).

The active and passive voices are differentiated according to which of the participants of the action serves as the main theme of the communication: the subject (active voice) or the object (passive voice). These voices are distinguished in languages in which the forms of the subject and the object in the sentence are differentiated (for example, by case or word order). If the verb is in the active voice, the subject is in the fundamental case, while the object is in an oblique case (Petia chitaet knigu, “Petia is reading the book”). In the passive voice there is the reverse correlation (kniga chitaet-sia Petei, “the book is being read by Petia”).

Some linguists consider as voice forms of a verb those in which the subject is not expressed (dorogu zaneslo, “the road was covered with snow”) or is in an oblique case (mne kazhetsia, “it seems to me”), as well as forms for which the object is not expressed (Gilyak n’i p’otf, “I am sewing, occupied with sewing”). In different languages the number of voice oppositions varies, and in a number of languages they are totally lacking. Formally, voice can be expressed by an affix (razbivaetsia, “is breaking”), by internal inflection (Arabic yuktabu, “is written”), or by auxiliary words (English was built}.