Field Trip: Literary and Historical Society of Québec

It was my recording alone that received the special treatment.

Our phonetics professor gave us the results of our first exam in class this morning. Each student had stood up at the front of the classroom and read aloud a certain passage of text. These recitations were recorded. Today, we each received a page of feedback in which the professor highlighted the most problematic aspects in our delivery. My greatest weaknesses: enchaînements and liaisons.

After glossing over the most frequent pronunciation problems the teacher finished the topic with an in-depth focus on my recording:

"I put David's voice through the spectrum analyzer," our professor said. "I wanted to know his frequency range."

"Most men's speech has a frequency around 140. That means that the vibration is cycling 140 times per second. Women's voices can have frequencies above 200. Children can be up around 400.

"Me, I have a relatively deep voice. It has a frequency of 100. But, David's:

"64.

"That's lower than Barry White!"

Well, then. Perhaps I should consider moonlighting as a soul singer.