Do most, if not all people, have a "phone voice"?

i like how my voice sounds on my land-line voicemail greeting. i listen to talk radio a lot. enunciate enunciate enunciate!

OMG MY MOM DOES THAT ALL THE TIME! Today she was yelling at me and then she answered the fone and she was like HELLO in a really sweet voice then when she gets off the fone shes in a really good mood

i sound exactly the same.

…with a voice like butterscotch mixed with sex.

Ha, my mom did that all the time to. And she has a special voice for recording voicemail greetings. Doesn’t sound a fucking bit like her, it annoys the crap out of me. I think it’s just a silly way of trying to make a good impression, since we have no first impression on the phone like clothing or posture or handshake we have to do something with our voices, which ends up making them more pompous.

I’ve never been accused of such a thing, and I hope to god I never am.

@eponymoushipster What is the sound of butterscotch?

Well, the opposite way of doing it would be a problem for the hapless caller on the other end of the line, wouldn’t it?

I definitely have a business phone voice. My husband used to hate it if he called me at work, and I was in the middle of something so I was using my brisk at work voice.

There’s a teensy bit of nasalness to my voice I’d like to eliminate. I heard it the other day when I was setting up my new voice mail on my mobile. It was certainly my more professional voice, but the tone was still high and girlish-sounding to me. I should be able to practice, since I know head voice, chest voice and diaphragm voice from my singing lessons. I’ll simply have to catch myself when I’m in head voice and adjust. I’ll sound like Peter Brady for a bit, I reckon.

My phone voice is much more… pleasant… when I have a cold and it temporarily deepens (hur-hur-hur).

Since the invention of caller ID – I have many phone voices. I can sound as blah or bitchy as I want if I see it’s another telemarketer (usually don’t even answer the phone now), out of breath if I need to say I was running out the door to someone who is rather long-winded, pleased as pie if it’s someone I was supposed to call but hadn’t gotten around to it, or my regular voice for all others. Hmm. I guess I’m a frickin’ actress! dialing an agent….‘hello, Darren?’ said in my most needy, sexy, give me the job voice…

I used to work at a pizzeria, answering phones for delivery orders. I definitely had a phone voice and manner, and sometimes, when I was bored, I would mess around and change my voice for the fun of it. I was once told that I should work for a phone sex service… and I wasn’t even trying. Hmmm.

@TitsMcGhee: Ugh, thank you for the Dominos memories. On the plus side, it was a great place to practice all my accents. British, Welsh, Australian, German, fun stuff. :)

@tinyfaery wouldn’t you like to know.

We just about have to or no one would understand us. It is necessarily to speak more clearly. My husband has a really funny phone voice, he sings, or modulates his voice.

@asmonet: British, French, Irish, Spanish, Elmo…. you know, the essentials.

Word, sista.

I definitely have a work phone voice, pretending like I care that people are calling. I talk like myself on the phone though, with friends and family.

It’s just common courtesy… if you were mad at your friend or your husband/wife.. and someone said good morning.. would you say “screw you” ? I guess there are those without common courtesy.. but I like to think for the most part people have some

According to my husband I have the following voices: the “damn! You woke me up, voice!”, the business voice, the irritated business voice – generally a client that has worn out my last bit of patience, the middle of the day voice, usually only reserved for him – flirty and happy to hear from him, the “boy is home from school and climbing all over me, we’re playing – you’re interrupting!” voice, the “Daughter is home – another crazy friend story!’, the “I’m cooking dinner, the boy is pulling on me and when the hell are you getting here to pry him off of me!” voice…..last but not least, I have the “Mom, it’s ok. You don’t have to say anything – I’ll just listen when you are ready to talk. it hurts to hear her cry we both miss dad more that we ever imagined we could miss someone.” it all starts over the next day!