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Who has a lovely speaking voice, and why?

(220 Posts)
MissAdventure Wed 30-Sept-20 17:59:10

Have you been told you have a nice or unpleasant voice?

Callistemon21 Sat 12-Feb-22 22:08:08

Esspee
How exciting!!

You're not my satnav voice as well are you?

Blossoming Sat 12-Feb-22 22:07:58

Thanks very much MizzyH grin

My ‘cutesie little girl voice’ is the result of nerve damage, not deliberate!

Esspee Sat 12-Feb-22 22:00:45

You may feel from my voice that you know me. It may be that a long time ago I was the voice on your answering service.

MizzyH Sat 12-Feb-22 21:49:30

I'm told that all the time over the phone. When I'm asked for my date of birth (legitimately) there's a small silence and then "You don't sound that old" which I THINK is a compliment!). So I just say I'm a singer and have done a lot of acting, so my voice is still strong and apparently very pleasant according to my OH (biased obviously). It's a low voice - no squeaks!! What I really can't bear is grown women who have cutsie little girl voices - it just doesn't sound right!!

Gwyneth Sat 12-Feb-22 19:58:54

Definitely Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins. I also like Martin Shaw and Monty Don.

Callistemon21 Sat 12-Feb-22 19:47:36

I've got a deep voice and, when I listen to a recording, a slight accent.

JaneJudge Sat 12-Feb-22 19:08:32

I have regional accent despite hardly ever living where I was brought up to but in all honesty I have not attempted to change it

Blossoming Sat 12-Feb-22 19:05:04

Whisper

Blossoming Sat 12-Feb-22 19:04:46

I sound like a child. I have been asked by telephone canvassers if they can speak to my parents. I whisprt ‘they’re dead’ and put the phone down.

ShazzaKanazza Sat 12-Feb-22 18:59:44

I’ve always hated hearing myself speak especially after someone told me I had a voice like Mavis Riley of Corrie. ?

Serendipity22 Sat 12-Feb-22 18:54:27

Absolutely not, i sound like a flippin washer woman.

I have a very broad Yorkshire accent, which i should hold my hand up and say I am very proud of.
smile

Callistemon21 Sat 12-Feb-22 18:15:41

Oopsadaisy4

In France a waiter once told me that I had a lovely French accent, I said thank you very much did he understand me ok? He said , No , not really........As I had used the wrong words.?

???

I remember speaking French to the wife of one of DH's French colleagues and he asked me not to!
To be fair, he said she wanted to improve her English (but I wanted to improve my French).

Just to complicate matters, we were in Spain at the time.

ayse Sat 12-Feb-22 18:08:09

I still have the remnants of an old Sussex accent, learned when I was a child living in Sussex. I always thought I sounded a bit strange until I heard a family at a camping site speaking just like me. They came from Newhaven. I was so excited to find there were others like me.

Some years ago running a bar in ROI we had some holiday customers from England. They asked where I was from and in chatting I asked them to guess. One of the men told me near Brighton which was true. I was amazed.

MizzyH Sat 12-Feb-22 18:01:16

I remember him very well as Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice in the late 50s(?) I don't believe the recording of that version is still around, sadly - it made a great impression on me as a teenager. I asked his daughter Sarah if she'd seen it or got a copy of it and she said it was now unavailable. SO sad. His voice is like liquid toffee - very mesmerising.

hollysteers Sun 04-Oct-20 13:36:26

As mentioned, Alan Badel (I saw him in a play at the Oxford Playhouse in another life, lovely) Steve Allen and Eddie Meyer of LBC. I can’t sleep without a soothing voice...
I try to speak clearly and have been asked if I’m German or Dutch???
Lots of British accents are very attractive but I wish people would realise that no matter how much they doll themselves up, it will be ruined by an exaggerated screaming ugly accent. My mother and her generation had the local accent, but it was soft. Now there seems to be a pride in yelling it.

FannyCornforth Sun 04-Oct-20 12:24:36

Oh trust please don't hate your accent. Mine's Dudley (to the uninitiated, exactly the same thing).
Although I do find it annoying that people assume that we are thick.
When I did my MA years ago I was patronised to the extent that I felt like a performing monkey.

trustgone4sure Sun 04-Oct-20 12:16:29

I have a brummie accent and was amazed whilst on holiday in Somerset when a couple started talking to me about anything and everything only for them to tell me that they love hearing my accent and could talk to me for ages.
I still hate my accent.

JackyB Sun 04-Oct-20 11:49:46

I was listening to an interview with David Oyelowo and just kept thinking what a gorgeous voice he has.

For years I had only seen Brad Pitt in dubbed German versions of films, and was bowled over when I finally watched a film on DVD and could set it to the original sound track and heard him actually speaking!

Lily2 Sat 03-Oct-20 08:56:45

Why are people with hard of hearing treated as a nuisance with eyes going up when you don't hear first time and "forget it" another if people spoke more slowly including health professionals it would help

tricia12 Sat 03-Oct-20 07:29:29

i think joanna lumley ,judi dench,hugh bonneville and of course richard burton all are very famous partly because of their beautiful voices.

MrsRochester Fri 02-Oct-20 20:59:37

Haven’t read whole thread, apologies if repetition.

Roger Allam. No idea why, just something about it. Also, Anton Lesser reading children’s stories, hypnotic.
For sheer gusto and joie de vivre, Martin Jarvis, reading anything.

Suki70 Fri 02-Oct-20 20:42:10

Zeb Soanes, BBC newsreader, announcer and presenter.

Pebblesterrier Fri 02-Oct-20 00:34:40

I love Jenny Murray's voice. It's like a soothing hot chocolate. Could listen to her reading the ingredients of a frozen pizza ?!

So sad that it was her last day on Woman's Hour today after 30+ years ?

Milest0ne Thu 01-Oct-20 23:48:46

My D went to live in Denmark. She joined a Danish language class. The rest of the class understood the Indian gentleman's English better than they understood her, using non colloquial and a non regional accent.

Bellanonna Thu 01-Oct-20 23:09:23

Monty Don