to whisper

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to whisper
Whispered interpreting: an interpreter (left) whispers a translation to Garry Kasparov (center)

The whisper , even whisper , Wispeln , Pispern or Fispern called, is a kind of unvoiced speech , in which the speech sounds not with laryngeal tubes , the sound of the voice , are formed. In contrast to a voice, a whisper is a noise and not a sound . The vocal folds are in a paramedian position when whispering . The air flowing out of the lungs rubs against the vocal folds , making a sound (whisper). Contrary to popular belief, whispering is not easy on the voice.

Due to the lack of characteristic spectral ranges of the human voice, automatic speech recognition of whispers is not possible with today's technology. But a listener can understand words spoken in a whisper.

Whispering has a sound pressure of approx. 30 dB (A) . There is also what is known as pseudo-whispering, in which only the air present in the mouth is articulated out.

Tonal languages , in which the meaning of spoken words depends on the pitch, can also be conveyed in a largely understandable manner by whispering, because instead of the missing pitch fluctuations, a variable sub- glottic pressure and a change in the color of the sound take on this distinction .

A special whispered vocal performance occurs in the music of the East African countries Burundi and Rwanda . The musician replaces the missing pitches of the tonal languages ​​there by accompanying his whispered text on the trog zither inanga . For the listener, the precisely rhythmically coordinated harmony of whispers and string tones creates the illusion of a singing voice.

Web links

Commons : Whisper  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Luchsinger , Gottfried Eduard Arnold : Textbook of Voice and Speech Medicine. Springer, Vienna 1959, p. 114
  2. ^ Cornelia Fales: Acoustic Intuition of Complex Auditory Phenomena by "Whispered inanga" Musicians of Burundi. In: The World of Music. Journal of the International Institute for Traditional Music (IITM) . Vol. 37 (3), 1995, pp. 3-35, here p. 4f