Have you ever thought what life would be like if everyone had the same voice?
And how interesting it is that you can instantly recognize the voice of your parents and the voice of your favorite singer?
It really helps that we each have a unique voice, but how does that happen?
Our voices are like our fingerprints, powerful tools of human uniqueness. Although people may share a similar pitch or certain vocal characteristics, upon closer examination no two voices are exactly alike;
Height, weight, hormones, origin, sensitivity, emotions, and environmental factors all play a role in determining how your voice will ultimately sound.
High-frequency sounds reach our ears faster, which partly explains why children's voices are so annoying (Getty Images)
The secret of anatomy
Each of us has a unique voice because it is the product of many factors. Your voice begins in your lungs, where air is exhaled to create an airflow in the windpipe and through the larynx.
As Mental Foss points out, the vocal folds run horizontally through your larynx, also known as your vocal cords;
When air passes over it, the vocal cords vibrate very quickly to emit sounds, and the higher the rate of vibration - called frequency - the higher the pitch.
The tone of your voice is largely determined by the length and tension of your vocal cords.
The vocal cords themselves only produce a sizzling sound, and the parts of your body between your vocal cords and the outside world — your throat, nose, and mouth — work like an echo chamber to transform those buzzing sounds into your unique human voice.
Since there are 3 organs in the human body that work together to generate sound, even slight differences in one of the organs can produce different sounds;
So the diversity of sounds is due to subtle changes in the anatomy and how moderate the vocal cords are.
People's voices can change with age, too;
Because the system that generates sound, like many other organs, changes over time.
Men's voices are different from women's
One of the most obvious determinants of different voices is a person's gender;
From an anatomical point of view, males have vocal folds or vocal cords larger than females, and even before the increase in hormones during adolescence, boys usually have deeper voices than girls, and these folds are stretched horizontally through the larynx (voice box), and when air is extracted from the lungs to speak, they vibrating.
The length, size, and tension of the folds determine what is known as the fundamental frequency of the resulting sound, which averages about 125 Hz in men, 210 in women, and plus 300 Hz in children.
The higher the frequency of the sound wave, the higher the pitch.
High-frequency sounds reach our ears faster;
Which partially explains why children's voices can be so annoying.
When a woman talks to a man to get his attention, he notices a slight increase in the pitch (Getty Images)
What happens to boys' voice at puberty?
When we reach puberty, hormones always cause the voice to change. During this time, the vocal folds expand and thicken;
This results in it resonating at a lower frequency, producing a deeper pitch.
In males, testosterone production increases, the larynx increases in size, and the vocal folds of girls also grow slightly - about 3 millimeters compared to 10 in boys - but since they do not produce testosterone, their voices remain relatively high.
Genes also play a role in how our voices mature. Although a child's voice somewhat mimics its parents, people from the same family are often alike because the anatomy of the larynx is determined by ancestral DNA like any other physical trait.
And it's the subtle differences about this anatomy that make our voices distinct.
The voice with which you enter adulthood is, to a large extent, the voice that stays with you for the rest of your life (Getty Images)
Your voice and the flu and other things
The voice with which you enter adulthood is, to a large extent, the voice that stays with you throughout your life;
However, there are many factors that can influence vocal changes, such as having a cold for example.
The Curiosity Unlocked website notes that the common hoarse voice in people with colds is caused by swelling of the vocal cords caused by the influenza virus.
Coughing can also cause more irritation and swelling in the vocal cords.
Your voice can also change from time to time as a result of anything affecting your vocal cords, larynx, or any other part of the body that helps produce your voice.
Some of these factors include pollution, climate, smoking and shouting a lot.
Our emotional state also affects the way we speak;
When we experience excitement, tension or fear, the muscles that support the larynx contract involuntarily, and the tension in the vocal cords increases to produce that high, unstable tone that we associate with alarm.
Excitement and happiness make the voice louder, while sadness may cause a deeper sound.
It has also been observed that there is a significant hormonal effect on the vocal cords when a woman talks to a man to get his attention, through a slight increase in the pitch of the voice.
The man's brain is aware of this even though this response for both men and women may not be conscious.
Although the sound will return to normal once the stimulus has passed, people with high tension generally will keep some variation of that sound as part of their normal rhythm.
One of the most common phonemic designations is to describe someone as "my nose";
It is a characteristic of the human voice when speaking, as it is characterized by a clear nose effect;
It occurs when there is a lack of airflow through the nose while speaking.
Nasal congestion is the main cause, and anyone who suffers from allergies or chronic sinusitis can go through it, in addition to a number of other medical causes.
People who are high in tension generally keep some differences in voice (Getty Images)
the sound of old age
The inevitability of aging leads to a final and permanent vocal change for most of us.
After a long life of speech, the vocal cords and surrounding tissues lose strength and elasticity, and the mucous membranes become thinner and drier.
A change in the voice in the elderly - medically known as presbyphonia - is manifested in the feeling that they cannot speak as they did before, or they notice that their voice has increased or decreased over time.
There is a noticeable trembling in the voice, and ironically at this age men's voices will rise while women's voices will decrease, in a kind of opposite adolescence.
Some factors such as pollution, climate, smoking and yelling affect the sound (Getty Images)
Why don't we easily recognize a person by his voice?
Everyone has a distinct voice, different from everyone else's;
So it seems self-evident that we would be able to recognize a person by their voice fairly easily.
When it comes to getting to know your closest family and friends, you're probably pretty good, but you wouldn't be able to recognize the voice of your first teacher in elementary school if you heard him again today.
As a report by The Conversation points out, studies have found that we can recognize the voices of familiar people well, but the perception of vocal identity can be very difficult;
Due to how much a single person's voice can change, it is also difficult to identify a bilingual speaker.
What is surprising to researchers is how poorly vocal perception is when listeners are exposed to the natural variety of sounds a person can produce;
So while we all have a unique voice, we don't yet know how to distinguish between those voices.