Loud talkers: Why do some voices seem to be set at top volume?

[Shadow]

If there were a "Saturday Night Live" skit that sums up Kevin Roberts' life, it would have to be The Loud Family.
"My family is full of loud talkers," says the 42-year-old author and educational consultant from Detroit. He jokes, "My mother sneezes so loudly that children in the neighborhood congregate around the house waiting for one.
"I do a lot of public speaking and don't use a microphone, even if I'm talking to 400 people. And whenever I get together with my brother, we're out of hand. Everybody shushes us. We just have booming voices."

Roberts' sister, on the other hand, has her volume set to low. My older sister compensates," he says. "She has a first grade subdued teacher voice. She's more of a soft talker."
While loud talkers and soft talkers may seem like the stuff of "Seinfeld," researchers have actually pinpointed why some of us are constantly shushed while others struggle to be heard.

"There are four different factors," says Dr. Amee Shah, director of the speech acoustics and perception laboratory at Cleveland State University. "There's a biological component, a pathological component, a personality component and a cultural component."

http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...-at-top-volume


Made me think of a girl I work with. Deep booming voice...that can make you jump sometimes if she is behind you when she starts talking. Makes me wonder if she has control of that or not.

[fj1200]

I think that describe all three of my kids.

[Shadow]

I think that describe all three of my kids.

Yeah...my kids can be kind of loud sometimes too (I'm always telling them...take that in the other room when it get to be too much). The one thing thatmy oldest child used to do was talk really really fast. She talked so fast it was almost hard to keep up sometimes...but I got used to it after awhile. Then she went on meds for issues she was having related to brain chemicals misfiring,now she talks at a normal pace. It was very hard to get used to at first...I kept asking her if she was okay. Didn't realize how used to it I was...and it seemed normal to me. Never realized it was part of her problems.

[Thunderknuckles]

OH MY GOD my wife and her dad talk so damn loud. My father-in-law especially. He talks like he is at a rock concert all the time. They have absolutely no control over it. I tell my wife all the time to dial it down a notch...I'm right in front of you, not 20 yards away. Somebody should make a pill to fix that

[Gator Monroe]

Hearing Issues , From Queens New York, Taking Audio High Ground (Usuially Wheelchair bound folks or Short People) ...

[Shadow]

OH MY GOD my wife and her dad talk so damn loud. My father-in-law especially. He talks like he is at a rock concert all the time. They have absolutely no control over it. I tell my wife all the time to dial it down a notch...I'm right in front of you, not 20 yards away. Somebody should make a pill to fix that

Yeah...that's what I always want to tell this loud girl at work...Either dial it down or use your indoor voice. Something...anything...cuz it's obnoxious.