4 Things Alcohol Does to Your Voice
Ahh lurrrvve youuuu. Yhur mah Bheshtie!
Chances are if your bride-to-be-bestie is the type of person who loves to par-tay, a whole lot of people are gonna get a tad drunk – let’s face it, totally sloshed – at the Bachelorette Party. We all know that intoxication causes people to slllluuurrr their wwworrrds, but there’s a whole lot more that happens linguistically – both for the person who’s drunk and for the sober people listening (special shout out to designated drivers!). So, here are 4 things that studies have shown to happen to your voice and how you speak when you’re drunk.
1. Slurring words.
Let’s start with the obvious. Why do people slur their words when they’re drunk?
Alcohol slows your physical movements and thought processes right down when you drink. That’s why things seem to happen faster – they’re happening at regular speed but you’re processing them slower. Part of this is that you also lose a bit of motor control, which means that it’s harder to physically control what your mouth is doing. It’s like when you go in for a drunk kiss and everything’s just all a bit sloppier than usual.
The specific mistakes people make when they’re drunk have been summed up into a really convenient table by some researchers over at the Department of Psychology at Indiana University and the department of linguistics at UCLA. To summarise from it:
* ‘ch’ becomes ‘sh’ – ‘sheck out that dreamboat’
* ‘z’ at the end of words becomes ‘s’ – ‘come on everyone, jass hands!’
* ‘sh’ instead of ‘s’ – ‘Hey there shekshy’
* ‘r’ and ‘l’ just don’t quite come out quite right
People also make more mistakes when they speak, so there’s more repetition and people frequently leave the most important words out of the sentence. “I forgot my… my… in the car…” Scarf? ID? Baby? We may never know.
2. Higher voice pitch.
The science on this has been a little controversial. Early studies tended to show that drunk people speak with a lower pitch than their sober selves, but more recent studies show that it’s actually the opposite – drunk people speak higher. According to linguistics professor Keith Johnson, this could be due to the “irritation and swelling of the mucous membranes of the vocal folds and desensitization of the proprioceptors of the vocal folds as a side effect of consuming alcohol”. Mmmmm so appealing. On the plus side, it’s a great time to sing Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or Mika’s Grace Kelly – you might finally be able to reach the high notes!
3. Speech slows down and pauses increase.
Maybe because of the slower brain and lip function – or maybe just because they’re too distracted by the total babe sitting at the bar – the rate of speech for drunk people is significantly slower than that of sober people. Additionally, the number of pauses and breaks in sentences increases.
If you’re in an unbearable conversation with someone who’s had a few too many, trying saying “that’s what she said” in your head every time they pause. They’ll think they’re a comedy genius (or that you’re really insensitive, depending on the mood of the conversation) when you crack up at everything they say.
4. People can’t tell how drunk you actually are.
As it turns out, people are really quite good at working out if someone is drunk or not from their voice alone. People are also good at working out if one voice is drunker than another. However, people are really bad at telling exactly how drunk someone is based on their voice alone. In the study, listeners consistently rated mildly drunk speakers as being drunker than they were and ranked legally and severely drunk speakers as being less intoxicated than they were. Good news all round really. For people who don’t like to drink heaps but are afraid of missing out on the fun – people will think you’re heaps drunker than you are! For people who like to drink a lot but don’t want to be judged – people will think you’re less drunk than you are! Win-win! The catch is that this is just from your voice, so if you want the full effect you’ll have to be talking to them over the phone.
So when you’re out at your awesome Party In Canberra Bachelorette Party, take a minute to check out how your friends are sounding. Are they a bit higher-pitched than usual? Talking a bit slower? Slurring their words? Then you my friend are in for one hell of a night!
Xo Caroline
Caroline is an enthusiast for all things wordy and is currently studying languages and linguistics at the ANU. If you loved this and want to read more about language, check out her blog at www.ASlipOfTheLip.com
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