How would you describe the prosody of your speech?

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Prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. I'm doing my Masters thesis on prosody in autism, and although I wouldn't be able to use this data for my thesis, I thought it might be interesting to see what people said.

So, how would you describe your prosody? Have other people commented on it? Has it ever been targeted in speech therapy?

people thought I was this little English girl living with lower middle class family in Wichita, KS in the 1950's. I actually had this speech mannerism that just sounded 'British' clipped, stilted and incredibly formal. Mom always wanted to give me 'elocution' lessons, but never did. I make my living by talking on the telephone, and appeal to my clients who are older folks on Medicare. They appreciate the formality, the almost exaggerated respect and succinctness of my phrasing and clarity of my enunciation.

Talking on the phone eliminates reading body language, facial expressions and other non verbal cues. It forces them into my world of that 10% that is conveyed through speech and words. I get a lot of information out of them and get them the information they need, so it works out for both of us. However, when I answer, they invaribly state "Is this a real person?" " are you a recording?" "am I speaking to a live person?" and sometimes I have to actually convince them of the fact that I am, indeed, a warm body on the other end of the phone.

we all find our niches, eh?

Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 13 Jan 2008, 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sometimes flat, sometimes not, it depends on my mood. I have a decent amount of intonation im my voice if I am in a good mood, but sound quote monotone if I am feeling like crap.

My voice is generally very sing-songy and funny sounding...I used to be a switchboard operator and people always wanted to know where i was from...I guess I had sime strange not quite placeable accent...
I talk the way i do because I am a singer...I talk-sing
Sometimes when I am tired or cranky, my voice can go flat and sound more monotone

Monotonous, slow and paced.

I'm robotic to all but a few people who are close to me (I have no control over it).

And yeah, people have commented on it:

In high school I was called "slow" by many of my peers (teased because of my voice), and to many adults my voice appears calm.

My speech tends 2 b quite fast so im always off da mark very quickly.

It ranges depending on how my throat feels.

Sometimes its very deep, other times its average, nearly higher than usual.

When I read I often forget there are punctuations so I sound like a run-on robot. Then at times when I'm anxiety-free it appears pedantic.

On average: Either rising/lowering in pitch or monotonous. I'm often told I'm too enthusiastic or that I just don't sound like I care.

One psychologist typed that I had a marked prosody in my speech, and that it sounded stressed/strangled. I wonder what that means?

I voted "unusual or idiosyncratic," though now I think "variable" might have been a better choice. When I'm very enthused, I sound it. My intonation is otherwise either stiff or stilted. I am rather shy, so my voice is often quiet. I never learned how to yell, or project my voice.

I dunno.

Hmm... I voted for fast and normal (though the speed could just be being a Kiwi; we have a reputation for being fast speakers). Though I think now unusual could've been better.

As a kid I sounded very British. Now I just speak very properly - all letters are pronounced as they should be, none of the 'wanna' or 'properdy' instead of 'property'! ! I also have a cross between a NZ and South-Coast British accent, which can sound very peculiar at times. I use big words too. Sometimes my voice goes really high too, and girly...

When I spoke, it was commented on many times throughout my entire childhood as extremely flat, and also as having a foreign accent. (Variously considered British or Swedish.)

Now, it'd be more like idiosyncratic. Probably because most of my current speech is tics or non-communicative echolalia.

WOW! For a while, I hought this might be an indication I wasn't AS, but I never saw evidence that that standard fit ANYONE. I said the only one that fit me:

Variable intonation (sometimes flat, sometimes not)

At this point, almost 50% have said the same! WOW!

I voted for idiosyncratic because it's my current. But in the past I would've voted flat.

I'm not sure what that means. In speech pathology, "strangled" is more commonly used to describe voice quality. For instance, people with spastic dysarthria, a type of motor speech disorder, often have a strangled quality to their voice. The use of "stressed" makes me think of excess and equal stress, which is a disorder of prosody which is again usually associated with certain motor speech disorders, or sometimes apraxia of speech. Do you have the exact wording written down somewhere? Was there any further explanation of what he meant?

I would've said "typical" if a friend of mine hadn't left his videocamera running during an extended conversation a few years ago. On playing it back, I was shocked by how flat I sounded - things that I meant in a jokey kind of way came out flat, almost sounding like insults. I was kind of appalled, honestly. (I went with "variable".)