Why can the human voice be determined by gender?

When you are on the phone with a stranger, you can definitely guess what gender that person is from their voice alone. Likewise when you hear a song. You may immediately tell whether the singer is a man or a woman. Human voices are unique and predictable gender. Different from animals, right?

However, how far is the difference between male and female voices? How does a person's gender determine the characteristics or character of his voice? Check out the full explanation below.

How is the human voice produced?

Basically, human voice is produced from the air in your body. Well, the process of producing the human voice is divided into three main stages.

The first stage begins when your lungs pump air out towards the vocal cords located in your throat. The second stage is when the air passes through the vocal cords. Because there are vocal cords, the air that passes by vibrates. This process of air vibrations by the vocal cords produces sound.

However, this sound will not become a sound if it does not go through the last stage, which is articulation. Articulation occurs when sound is converted into a clear sound by means of movement of the mouth, tongue, or inner cheeks.

How different are the voices of women and men?

According to experts, the difference between male and female voices is not mathematically much different. However, because since childhood humans have been accustomed to distinguish between male and female voices, you have become very sensitive to the differences in female and male voices.

In fact, the frequency of the male voice is in the 65 to 260 Hertz range. Meanwhile, the frequency of female voices is recorded in the range 100 to 525 Hertz. This means that men and women with a sound frequency of 100 to 260 Hertz should be difficult to distinguish if only heard from the voice alone.

Why are the voices of women and men different?

If the human voice is basically on a frequency that is not very far apart, then what makes male and female voices sound different? Here comes the answer.

Tone of voice

Human tone or voice pitch determined by the shape and stress of your vocal cords. The pressure on the vocal cords is controlled by the muscles of the larynx (larynx). Well, the greater the pressure on the larynx, the faster the resulting vibrations. The faster the vibration, the higher the pitch of your voice.

Well, women do have the shape and vibration of the vocal cords that can make them produce high-pitched sounds. Whereas in men, the slower vibrations make it produce a lower pitched sound.

Hormone

The various hormones in your body play an important role in many ways. One of them is a human voice. The reason is, a number of studies have shown that men with high testosterone levels have a lower tone of voice.

The same can be observed in women. Your hormonal balance will affect whether your vocal cords and throat are dry or moist enough. In addition, hormones are one of the determinants of the strength of the muscles of the larynx and lungs to pump air into sound.

Because the balance of hormones in the male and female bodies is different, the character of the sound produced is different.