xenophobia, sexism, or nationalism.
Every language variety from national language to idiolect can be enlisted for
identity manifestation and, accordingly, be venerated or despised, praised or
denigrated. For every kind of linguistic identity, an ism exists that puts it down.
The linguistic identity of individuals
Imitating another speaker is funny for two reasons. It requires the manipulation
of behavioural features that usually remain unconscious, and it reminds us of the
fact that every person’s speech is unique. That extortionists made telephone calls
with a pencil between the teeth is lore long past. Nowadays voice-changing
software is routinely employed, for instance, to protect the identity of
interviewees who fear for their safety. However, the antidote for unmasking
modulated voices also exists. Voice biometrics is a growth industry.
Voice identification by spectrographic analysis is a long-established method of
forensic linguistics. With big data, it has achieved a new quality. Audio files of
speech samples are transformed into visual data called voiceprints or
spectrograms (Figure 12). This involves the measurement of the physical
properties of speech sounds, especially audible frequency, duration, and
amplitude, and their mapping on a screen. Further identificatory features of
speech that combine to make a voice unique include the following: prosody,
velocity, volume, dialect/sociolect, speech defect (e.g. lisp), idiosyncratic word
choice and grammatical constructions. As Edward Snowden revealed, the US
government maintains a database comprising hundreds of millions of voices
prepared for automatic speaker recognition. Other governments have not been
idle either. Unlike DNA samples, voices can be collected from a distance without
direct or indirect contact and without the subject’s knowledge, telephone calls
and video conferences being there for the taking, with or without consent or
official warrant. With a recording of a person’s voice, you can track them quite
reliably wherever they have a conversation. One’s voice, and more generally
one’s idiolect, is a personal identity marker, which is much more difficult to
change than a name, an address, or a PIN. (‘OK Google’ voice search will help
you to make your voice known to the world.)