25. “HELL FIRE: The Most Powerful Sermon Ever!!!,” YouTube, uploaded January 22, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCnQQLUJHb8&t=2s.
26. Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, “The Church in the Southern Black Community (May 2011), https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html, uploaded May 21, 2007.
27. Geneva Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986).
28. Smitherman, Talkin and Testifyin, 134–35.
29. Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018).
30. Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States, 478.
31. History Matters website, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8126.
32. I relied for the account that follows on Thomas Putnam, “The Real Meaning of Ich Bin Ein Berliner,” in Atlantic Monthly, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-real-meaning-of-ich-bin-ein-berliner/309500/.
33. Author correspondence with V. S. Ramachandran, April 30, 2012.
34. Author interview with John Baugh, April 19, 2017. Baugh said of Obama: “When he is in a predominantly black situation he does a few things, and one that I noticed was that any multisyllabic word ending in the long ‘e’ sound is where he nails black phonology.”
35. William Labov, Dialect Diversity in America: The Politics of Language Change (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009).
36. H. Samy Alim and Geneva Smitherman, Articulate While Black (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1–11.
37. David Remnick, The Bridge (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 18.
38. Remnick, The Bridge, 361.
39. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), 219.
40. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 55.
41. Hitler, Mein Kampf, 17.
42. Adolf Hitler, My New Order, edited with commentary by Raoul de Roussy de Sales (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941), xiv.
43. Joseph Goebbels, “Der Führer als Redner,” Adolf Hitler. Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers (Hamburg: Cigaretten/Bilderdienst Hamburg/Bahrenfeld, 1936), 27–34, https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/ahspeak.htm.
44. Goebbels, “Der Führer als Redner.”
45. Unsigned item, “Inside Hitler’s Mind,” on the University of Cambridge website (https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/inside-hitlers-mind), which also links to a copy of the original intelligence report, entitled “ANALYSIS OF HITLER’S SPEECH ON THE 26TH OF APRIL, 1942.”
46. Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of his Evil (Boston: Da Capo, 2014), 303.
47. Hitler, My New Order, 3.
48. Annalisa Merelli, “The State of Global Right-Wing Populism in 2019,” Quartz (December 30, 2019), https://qz.com/1774201/the-global-state-of-right-wing-populism-in-2019/.
49. These dismal facts come from a TED Talk lecture by the political scientist Abrak Saati: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fszENSaH0GQ&feature=youtu.be, uploaded June 7, 2018.
50. S. W. Gregory and T. J. Galeasher, “Spectral Analysis of Candidates’ Nonverbal Vocal Communication: Predicting US Presidential Election Outcomes,” Social Psychology Quarterly 65 (2002): 298–308.
51. Author interview with Branka Zei Pollerman, September 2, 2018. Zei Pollerman has done objective analysis of Trump’s pitch and has compared it to George Clooney, who, she told me, “has a pitch of 65 Hz with a heavy vocal fry.” Trump’s pitch will sometimes jump as high as 147.4 Hz.
52. Jacquiline Sachs, Philip Lieberman, and D. Erickson, “Anatomical and Cultural Determinants of Male and Female Speech,” Language Attitudes: Current Trends and Prospects (1972).
53. Ryan Dilbert, “Donald Trump: A History of the Presidential Candidate’s Involvement with WWE,” https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2669447-donald-trump-a-history-of-the-presidential-candidates-involvement-with-wwe.
54. Ryan Grim and Danny Shea, “A Note About Our Coverage of Donald Trump’s ‘Campaign,’ ” Huffington Post (July 17, 2015), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-note-about-our-coverage-of-donald-trumps-campaign_n_55a8fc9ce4b0896514d0fd66.
55. Arianna Huffington, “A Note on Trump: We Are No Longer Entertained,” Huffington Post (December 7, 2015), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-note-on-trump_b_8744476.
56. Morris Kaplan, “Major Landlord Accused of Antiblack Bias,” New York Times, October 16, 1973.
57. Jan Ransom, “Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty over Central Park Five,” New York Times, June 18, 2019.
58. Ransom, “Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty over Central Park Five.”
59. Marie Brenner, “After the Gold Rush,” Vanity Fair (September 1990), 294.
60. Bob Woodward, Fear: Trump in the White House (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019), 16.
61. Michael E. Miller, “Donald Trump on a Protester: ‘I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face,’ ” Washington Post, February 23, 2016.
62. https://www.nbcnews.com/video/trump-tells-crowd-to-knock-the-crap-out-of-tomato-throwers-613684291706, February 1, 2016.
63. Nick Corasaniti and Maggie Haberman, “Donald Trump Suggests ‘Second Amendment People’ Could Act Against Hillary Clinton,” New York Times, August 9, 2016.
64. Peter Osborne and Tom Roberts, How Trump Thinks (London: Head of Zeus, 2017), 207. Tweet of July 28, 2016.
65. Osborne and Roberts, How Trump Thinks, 198. Tweet of August 19, 2016.
66. Osborne and Roberts, How Trump Thinks, 198. Tweet of June 14, 2016.
67. The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, November 8, 2017.
68. J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (New York: Harper, 2016), 3.
69. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, 191.
70. Michael D’Antonio, The Truth About Trump (New York: St. Martin’s, 2016), 39.
EIGHT: SWAN SONG
1. Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 534.
2. Pinker, How the Mind Works, 528.
3. Milton Metfessel and Carl E. Seashore, Phonophotography in Folk Music: American Negro Songs in New Notation (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1928).
4. Author interview with Robert Warsh, May 18, 2020.
5. Metfessel and Seashore, Phonophotography in Folk Music, 14.
6. The correlation between emotion and vibrato in singing was demonstrated in a recent study in Journal of Voice 29, no. 2 (March 2015): 170–81, “The Effects of Emotional Expression on Vibrato.” Authors Christopher Dromey et al. recruited ten graduate school singers to sing songs with sustained vowels at several pitches and volumes. Songs personally selected by the singers for the intensity of the emotions resulted in stronger vibrato than the emotionally neutral songs picked by the researchers.
7. Johan Sundberg, “Acoustic and Psychoacoustic Aspects of Vocal Vibrato,” STL-QPSR 35, no. 2–3 (1994): 45–68.
8. Carl E. Seashore, Psychology of the Vibrato in Voice and Instrument (Iowa City: University Press of Iowa, 1936).
9. Author interview with Ingo Titze, executive director of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, April 10, 2017.
10. Carl E. Seashore, Psychology of the Vibrato in Voice and Instrument, (1936), 111.
11. Carl E. Seashore, Psychology of the Vibrato in Voice and Instrument, (1936), 47.
12. Dr. Yusuf Dalhat, “The Concept of al-Ruh (Soul) In Islam,” International Journal of Education and Research 3 no. 8 (August 2015): 431–40.
13. Hyun-Ah Kim, The Renaissance Ethics of Music: Singing, Contemplation and Musica Humana (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2015), 63.
14. Lennon’s twanging nasality is actually a feature of Liverpudlian speech that arises from holding the velum open slightly and sending the soundwave through the nose’s muffling mucous membranes. Not all natives do this: George Harrison did, Paul and Ringo do not. Nevertheless, the sound is so unique to Liverpool that linguist Gerald Knowles has speculated that it resul
ted from the northern city’s frigid winters and bad 19 century public health which gave rise to constant colds and partially congested noses, resulting in a twanging or “adenoidal” voice that was passed, by Motherese, even to healthy children. Gerald Knowles, “Scouse: The Urban Dialect of Liverpool” (PhD Thesis: University of Leeds, 1973), 116-117.
15. Nichola Gale, Stephanie Enright, et al., “A Pilot Investigation of Quality of Life and Lung Function Following Choral Singing in Cancer Survivors and Their Careers,” ecancer 6, no. 261 (2012), doi:10.3332/ecancer.2012.261.
16. R. J. Beck, T. C. Cesario, et al., “Choral Singing, Performance Perception, and Immune System Changes in Salivary Immunoglobulin A and Cortisol,” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 18, no. 1 (Fall 2000): 87–106.
17. Rollin McCraty, Mike Atkinson, Glen Rein, and Alan D. Watkins, “Music Enhances the Effect of Positive Emotional States on Salivary IgA,” Stress Medicine 12, no. 3 (1996): 167–75.
18. Jordyn Phelps, “The Story Behind President Obama Singing ‘Amazing Grace’ at Charleston Funeral,” ABC News online, July 7, 2015, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story-president-obama-singing-amazing-grace-charleston-funeral/story?id=32264346. The story includes video of Jarrett’s account.
19. “Spotlight,” New York Times, July 6, 2017.
20. Renée Fleming, The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer (New York: Viking, 2004), 20.
21. Fleming, The Inner Voice, 4.
22. Fleming, The Inner Voice, 17.
23. Author interview with Laurie Antonioli, November 22, 2016.
24. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1882), 572.
25. Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 572.
CODA
1. John Colapinto, “Giving Voice,” The New Yorker, March 4, 2013, 48–57.
2. Emily Heil, “Chuck Leavell Throws a White House Correspondents’ Dinner Pre-Party Where Journalists Rock,” Washington Post, April 13, 2015.
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
accents, 12, 20, 21, 47, 48, 109, 165–98 African Americans and, 187–96
American, 178–97
in birds, 47, 109
Black English, 188–94, 225
Canadian, 12
Cockney, 165, 167, 169–72, 176, 177, 188
economic status and, 178–81
General American, 182–84, 187, 193, 196
learning and unlearning, 48–50, 175
Liverpool “Scouse,” 176, 177
on Martha’s Vineyard, 180–81, 186, 191–92, 196
in Midwest, 182–87
in New York, 181, 182, 196
Northern Cities Shift in, 184–86, 196
Received Pronunciation, 171–72, 174–77, 181, 183
Southern, 186–87
Valley Girl, 196–98
actors, 91–95, 100
Adams, John, 205
Adams, John Quincy, 205
Adam’s apple, 42, 142
Adele, 7, 8, 70
adrenaline, 77
“Affective Computing” (Picard), 96–97, 99, 103
African Americans, 187–96 Black English and, 188–94, 225
churches of, 213–14, 225
folk singing of, 247–48, 250
in Great Migration, 191
white voice and, 194–95, 294n50
aging and the decline of the voice, 263–69
aggression, 79, 80, 145
Allen, Woody, 181
alliteration, 201, 215
altitude sickness, 122, 123
“Amazing Grace,” 246, 256
Ambady, Nalina, 151
American Speech, 155
amusia, 131
anaphora, 215
Andrews, Julie, 9, 14, 70, 160, 165, 262, 265–66
androgens, 142, 143, 146, 159
animals, 17, 20, 64, 67, 80, 81–82, 86–87, 95, 107, 111, 261 see also specific animals
anthropological linguistics, 111
antithesis, 80, 202, 251
Antonioli, Laurie, 259–60
apes, 108, 116–17 gibbons, 109, 147
aphasia, 50
Apple, 96, 99, 101
Archives of General Psychiatry, 39
Aristotle, 15, 210
Armstrong, Neil, 202
articulators, 44
artificial intelligence (AI), 97 see also computers
assonance, 201, 215
asyndeton, 201
Atlas of North American English, The (Labov et al.), 196, 197
attack, vocal, 21
audiobooks, 221–22
Augustine, 202
babies, language acquisition in, 24, 25–65, 112–13, 121 babbling, 45–47, 52, 119
“baby talk” and, 33–37
crying and, 37–39, 41, 76–77, 119
and differences in different languages, 28–30
in “feral” children, 50–51
fetal hearing and, 24, 25–28, 46, 62, 140
first spoken words, 45, 59, 119
individual words and, 31–32
and language as inborn, 33–36, 59–61, 113, 121–23
larynx position and, 42–45, 118
learning instinct and, 32
mother’s voice and “Motherese” in, 25–27, 37, 53, 60, 129, 140, 168, 175, 193
parents’ diaries on, 51–52, 109
sucking test and, 26–28, 31
vocal play in, 45
word acquisition and retention in, 59
Bacall, Lauren, 152–53
Banse, Rainer, 94–95
“bad words,” 83–84
Bannon, Steve, 238–39, 241
Basie, Count, 260
Baugh, John, 188–89
BBC, 174–76, 183
Beard, Mary, 154
Beatles, 41, 148, 176, 177, 247, 255, 267
behaviorism, 112
Bell, Alexander Graham, 173
Bell, Alexander Melville, 173
Berlin, Brent, 132
Bestelmeyer, Patricia, 167
Beyoncé, 249, 260
Bible, 106–7, 213, 253
Bieber, Justin, 148, 149
Biology and Evolution of Language, The (Lieberman), 121–22
birds, 16, 46–47, 64, 80, 88, 149, 251 accents in, 47, 109
evolution of, 126
FOXP2 gene in, 126
parrots, 16–17, 47, 106, 108
vocalization acquisition in, 47, 108–9
Black English, 188–94, 225
BlacKkKlansman, 194–95
Boas, Franz, 111
brain, 29–30, 46, 72, 108, 127 amygdala in, 77–79, 82–83, 85, 167
basal ganglia in, 46, 47, 51, 123–27, 143
behaviorism’s view of, 112
brainstem in, 75–77, 82, 116, 119, 160
Broca’s area in, 49–50, 55, 72, 76, 110, 121, 259
cerebellum in, 116
conversation and, 54–55, 58
cortex in, 76, 82–85, 88, 93, 97, 103, 116, 119, 123, 228
damage to, 49, 64
dopamine in, 62, 63, 77–78
evolution of, 75, 77, 82, 119
fMRI imaging of, 83, 167, 259
language as preinstalled in, 33–36, 59–61
limbic system in, 77–79, 82–84, 86, 88, 93, 97, 103, 119, 166–67, 228, 259
linguistic prosody and, 64
motor centers in, 122–24, 259
of Neanderthals, 118
neurons and neural pathways in, 29, 47, 55, 77, 78, 114, 121, 125, 143, 222, 232
neurotransmitters in, 77–78
oxygen starvation of, 122
plasticity of, 50, 172
stretch receptor nerves i
n, 115
surgery on, 84
Wernicke’s area in, 55, 59, 72, 76, 83, 121, 259
Brando, Marlon, 92–94
Branum, Guy, 163
Brazil, David, 58
breathiness, 150
breathing, 71, 115–16, 121, 127
Brenner, Marie, 238
Brexit, 102, 235
Bridge, The (Remnick), 226
British Education (Sheridan), 169
Broca, Paul, 110
Brown, James, 214
Bryson, Bill, 168
Buchanan, Pat, 239
Burling, Robbins, 282n58
Bush, George H. W., 239
By Myself (Bacall), 153
Caesar, Julius, 201
Cameron, David, 171
Carlson, Tucker, 190
Carmichael, Stokely, 214
castrati, 143–44, 148, 149
cats, 78–79, 82, 84, 109
Chanel, Coco, 268
channel discrepancy, 100–101
Chappelle, Dave, 194
character and personality, 12–13
Charles, Prince, 177
Charleston church shooting, 246, 256, 261
Charlottesville rally, 243
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 202
Cher, 2, 7
children critical periods for skill acquisition in, 49–51, 175
“feral,” 50–51
see also babies, language acquisition in
chimpanzees, 17, 42, 43, 71, 82, 107, 109, 116–20, 125, 142
Chinese, Mandarin, 131
choirs, 143–44, 255–56
choking on food, 117
Chomsky, Noam, 33–36, 59–61, 113–14, 116, 122–23, 127–32, 132, 136–39, 180, 236 language organ concept of, 34, 116, 121
mental grammar hierarchy of, 134–36
Universal Grammar concept of, 34, 61, 121, 128–29, 137, 138
Christianity, 106–7 churches and sermons, 210–14, 225
Pirahã and, 130, 137–38
singing and, 252–54
Churchill, Winston, 214–16
Cicero, 201–6, 210, 212, 215, 218, 219, 222–25, 227, 234
This Is the Voice Page 31
