正文翻譯

Your voice, when played back to you, can sound unrecognizable.

（圖解：你的嗓音如果被播放了出來(lái)，那可能會(huì)無(wú)法辨認(rèn)）
（2021年5月17日發(fā)表，作者為華盛頓大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)部耳鼻喉科助理教授尼爾·巴特）

As a surgeon who specializes in treating patients with voice problems, I routinely record my patients speaking. For me, these recordings are incredibly valuable. They allow me to track slight changes in their voices from visit to visit, and it helps confirm whether surgery or voice therapy led to improvements.

作為一名專治存在嗓音問(wèn)題病人的外科醫(yī)生，我經(jīng)常會(huì)錄下我病人的說(shuō)話聲。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，這些錄音有著極高的價(jià)值。通過(guò)它們，我就能追蹤病人每次來(lái)就診時(shí)嗓音出現(xiàn)的微妙變化，這有助于確認(rèn)為了改善病情應(yīng)當(dāng)采用手術(shù)還是嗓音治療。

Yet I’m surprised by how difficult these sessions can be for my patients. Many become visibly uncomfortable upon hearing their voice played back to them.

然而，讓我驚訝的是：這些治療過(guò)程對(duì)我的病人來(lái)說(shuō)，可能會(huì)非常難熬。很多人聽(tīng)到自己的聲音被回放出來(lái)，臉色就不對(duì)了，明顯感到很不舒服。

“Do I really sound like that?” they wonder, wincing.

他們會(huì)疑竇叢生，畏畏縮縮地問(wèn)，“我的聲音聽(tīng)起來(lái)真是這樣的嗎？”

(Yes, you do.)

（是的，正是如此）

Some become so unsettled they refuse outright to listen to the recording – much less go over the subtle changes I want to highlight.

有些病人會(huì)陷入極度不安，會(huì)斷然拒絕去聽(tīng)這些錄音，更不用說(shuō)去檢視我重點(diǎn)關(guān)注的微妙變化了。

The discomfort we have over hearing our voices in audio recordings is probably due to a mix of physiology and psychology.

我們?cè)阡浺糁新?tīng)到自己的聲音時(shí)會(huì)出現(xiàn)的不適感，可能兼有生理學(xué)和心理學(xué)方面的原因。

When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travels through the air and into your ears – what’s referred to as “air conduction.” The sound energy vibrates the ear drum and small ear bones. These bones then transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea, which stimulates nerve axons that send the auditory signal to the brain.

當(dāng)你在錄音中聽(tīng)到你的聲音時(shí)，這種聲音是經(jīng)由空氣入你的耳的，這被稱為“空氣傳導(dǎo)”。聲能會(huì)讓鼓膜和聽(tīng)小骨振動(dòng)。之后，這些骨頭會(huì)把聲音振動(dòng)傳導(dǎo)到耳蝸，進(jìn)而刺激神經(jīng)軸突，后者會(huì)將聽(tīng)覺(jué)信號(hào)傳給大腦。

For this reason, people generally perceive their voice as deeper and richer when they speak. The recorded voice, in comparison, can sound thinner and higher pitched, which many find cringeworthy.

由于這個(gè)原因，人們?cè)诟杏X(jué)上會(huì)覺(jué)得自己說(shuō)話時(shí)的聲音更深沉、也更豐富。相比之下，錄音中的聲音聽(tīng)起來(lái)可能會(huì)更單薄、更尖銳，有很多人會(huì)為此而生厭。

There’s a second reason hearing a recording of your voice can be so disconcerting. It really is a new voice – one that exposes a difference between your self-perception and reality. Because your voice is unique and an important component of self-identity, this mismatch can be jarring. Suddenly you realize other people have been hearing something else all along.

還有一個(gè)原因是，聽(tīng)到錄音中自己的聲音可能會(huì)讓人感到非常不安。這的確是一個(gè)新的聲音，它也暴露出了你的自我認(rèn)知和現(xiàn)實(shí)間的差異。因?yàn)槟愕穆曇羰仟?dú)一無(wú)二的，而且是自我身份認(rèn)同的重要組成部分，這種不匹配可能會(huì)讓人不快。突然之間你意識(shí)到，旁人一直以來(lái)聽(tīng)到的都是別的東西。

Even though we may actually sound more like our recorded voice to others, I think the reason so many of us squirm upon hearing it is not that the recorded voice is necessarily worse than our perceived voice. Instead, we’re simply more used to hearing ourselves sound a certain way.

盡管在別人聽(tīng)來(lái)，我們的嗓音可能更像錄音里的聲音，但我認(rèn)為，我們中間有如此多的人在聽(tīng)到后會(huì)感到不舒服，并不是因?yàn)殇浵碌穆曇粢欢ū任覀冏约焊兄降纳ひ舻土樱喾?，我們只是更?xí)慣自己的嗓音聽(tīng)來(lái)自帶一種特定的觀感。

評(píng)論翻譯

I haven’t been able to find a camera that is capable of taking a good photo of me yet and I’ve purchaesd dozens. All junk.

（回復(fù)）我至今都找不到能把我拍得很美的相機(jī)，而我已經(jīng)買了幾十部了。全都是垃圾。

Mirrors are the same - I haven’t looked on one in my entire lifetime that shows hoe wonderful I am = they all seem to show me as rather dull and lately somehow ageing

（回復(fù)）鏡子也是一樣，我這輩子就沒(méi)有碰到過(guò)能映現(xiàn)出我傾城美貌的鏡子，似乎它們映照出的全都是我那了無(wú)生趣的臉，最近照出來(lái)的我不知為什么還變老了。

Andrew Shead
Own-voice dissonance abates as one becomes accustomed to hearing it via air conduction.

當(dāng)一個(gè)人慢慢習(xí)慣了從空氣傳導(dǎo)中聽(tīng)到自己的聲音，那種不和諧感就會(huì)減弱了。

Paul A Whitelaw
Yes, in my mind I sound like Richard Burton on the boards, but in reality i sound like Hugh Grant on helium.

是的，在我的腦海里，我的嗓音就像舞臺(tái)上的理查德·伯頓，可現(xiàn)實(shí)是，我的嗓音聽(tīng)起來(lái)就像是吸了氦氣的休·格蘭特。
（譯注：理查德·伯頓（1925-1984）為六十年代好萊塢身價(jià)最高的明星；休·格蘭特（19760-），英國(guó)演員）

Dean Frenkel
Thanks for this most interesting article. I think there are other reasons not mentioned here. There are features of our voice that are not audible in our internal voice that become apparent in our external voice that are magnified, and if the technology is poor it caricatures the voice akin to a distorted mirror.

感謝你寫(xiě)出這篇極為有趣的文章。我覺(jué)得還有一些原因是文中沒(méi)有提及的。我們嗓音中的一部分特征在經(jīng)由體內(nèi)傳導(dǎo)的聲音中是聽(tīng)不見(jiàn)的，但在經(jīng)由外部傳導(dǎo)的聲音中就會(huì)被放大，從而變得很明顯，而如果技術(shù)不好，就會(huì)把這種聲音搞得很滑稽，如同哈哈鏡中的自己。

Mark Stevenson
To what extent is the sound of our air-conducted voice determined by our physiology, and to what extent is it learned through a process of adjustment and socialization?

（香港中文大學(xué)人類學(xué)系兼職副教授）我們由空氣傳導(dǎo)的聲音在多大程度上是由我們的生理機(jī)能決定的，又在多大程度上是在自我調(diào)節(jié)和社會(huì)化進(jìn)程中習(xí)得的？

As we grow up, acquire language, and hear a range of voices, presumably we adjust to the air-conducted voices we hear, as well as to other people’s reactions to our own sound.

隨著我們長(zhǎng)大，習(xí)得了語(yǔ)言，聽(tīng)到了一系列的聲音，想必我們會(huì)去適應(yīng)我們所聽(tīng)到的經(jīng)由空氣傳導(dǎo)的聲音，也會(huì)去適應(yīng)其他人對(duì)我們自己聲音的各種反應(yīng)。

Are we simply voicing in the dark, so to speak?

難道我們只是在渾然無(wú)察中發(fā)聲嗎，可以這么說(shuō)嗎？

Shane Harvey
In my head I sound like Darth Vader but when I play my voice back from an audio recording Im Sid Sloth.

在我的腦海中，我的聲音像達(dá)斯·維達(dá)（《星球大戰(zhàn)》），但在錄音里回放我的聲音時(shí)，我聽(tīng)起來(lái)卻像樹(shù)懶希德（《冰河世紀(jì)》）。

Paul Jelley
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned singing. I used to be told I had a good singing voice and should ‘keep it up’. Listening to a recording of my singing made me wince, I haven’t sung in public since.

讓我感到意外的是，都沒(méi)有人提到唱歌。以前有人告訴我說(shuō)我有一幅好歌喉，應(yīng)該“保持下去”?？墒锹?tīng)完我唱歌的錄音，我就畏縮了，自那以后我再也沒(méi)有在公眾場(chǎng)合唱過(guò)歌。

It still upsets me, and I am now entering late middle-age. Still can’t accept it. If you think about it, through most of human history, before recording devices, people made the mistake of thinking other people heard them the way they heard themselves. And they were better off for it.

這個(gè)情況至今都很讓我心煩，而我現(xiàn)在正在進(jìn)入中年后期。可還是無(wú)法接受。你可以想一想，在人類歷史中的大部分時(shí)間里，在出現(xiàn)錄音設(shè)備之前，人們犯了一個(gè)錯(cuò)誤，認(rèn)為別人耳中自己的聲音就是他們自己耳中自己的聲音。而他們的自我感覺(jué)也因此變好了。

Peter Nyikos
While this article does explain why our voices seem so different to us when played back, it does not touch upon the unpleasant fact: some people’s voices sound much better than other people’s voices. Most importantly: more authoritative, more harmonious, more “together.” It would be nice to have information on how to improve one’s voice along those lines.

雖然這篇文章確實(shí)解釋了我們的嗓音聽(tīng)起來(lái)和錄音大相徑庭的原因，但并沒(méi)有觸及這個(gè)令人不快的事實(shí)：有些人的嗓音聽(tīng)上去就是比另一些人好聽(tīng)。最重要的是：會(huì)更有權(quán)威感、更悅耳、更“渾然一體”。如何根據(jù)這些指標(biāo)改善自己的嗓音呢，要是能提供這方面的信息就好了。

As one whose two brothers have voices that sound similar to mine, I suspect that a lot of one’s voice is genetically determined. In our case, it seems some recessive genes are at work: our voices are different from those of either of our parents.

我的兩個(gè)兄弟，他們的嗓音都很接近我的，我猜一個(gè)人的聲音在很大程度上是由基因決定的。在我們這個(gè)案例中，似乎是某些隱性基因在起作用，因?yàn)槲覀兊纳ひ艉臀覀冸p親的嗓音差異很大。