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You can't help it if you have a hoarse or croaking voice, one that is gruff, husky or gravelly. But if there is an edge to it, as there often is, you'd better watch out. You're not adept at masking your anger, impatience or nervousness during your day-to-day activities. What is being referred to here is the tone of voice. By tone we ordinarily mean the pitch, quality and strength of a sound. The 'ringing tones of an orator's voice' and the 'harsh tone of an air horn' are familiar expressions. We're, however, concerned here with the manner of expression or speaking, which can convey the whole gamut of human emotions. Let me take an example from Wodehouse ('Ruth in Exile'). 'Ruth, as has been stated, sat during her hours of work behind a ground-glass screen, unseen and unseeing.. 'To her the patrons of the establishment were mere disembodied voices - wheedling voices, pathetic voices, voices that protested, voices that hectored, voices that whined, moaned, broke, appealed to the saints, and in various other ways endeavoured to instil into M Gandinot more spacious and princely views on the subject of advancing money on property pledged'. The tone of voice, as the example shows, can be one of command, insolence, anger, reproach, regret, impatience, sorrow, endearment, or entreaty. Among the customers of M Gandinot, the pawnbroker, are the cajoling/coaxing kind, the pitiable/tearful ones, bullies and whiners. Vallins calls Wodehouse 'a master, not only of a peculiarly expressive vocabulary and idiom, but also of the humorous simile which depends mainly on exaggeration'. A few words on 'wheedling', 'whining' and 'hectoring' would be in order. 'Wheedle' is ordinarily used in a pejorative sense. To wheedle something out of someone is to obtain something by flattery or endearments. We speak of a 'wheedling tone of voice' and of a person wheedling a concession out of his boss. Hari wheedled his way into the cinema hall during the special show. One can also wheedle a person into doing something or into good temper. One does so by flattering/humouring him for one's own ends. The origin of the word, 'wheedle', is obscure, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD). The COD says the word is perhaps derived from the Old English 'waedlian' (beg) and 'waedl' (poverty). Dog lovers perhaps prefer the word 'querulousness' to 'whining', a prolonged plaintive cry. The word is related to OE 'hwinan' and the Old Norse 'hvina'. 'Hectoring' means 'blustering/bullying' and the noun 'hector' stands for a bully. 'Hektor' (Greek) was the son of Priam and Hecuba, Trojan hero in 'Iliad'. 'Tone' refers to the quality or character of sound produced by a musical instrument (Example: Here is a violin with an excellent tone). It also stands (in music) for any one of the five larger intervals between one note and the next that (together with two semitones) make up an octave. Figuratively, 'tone' (singular) signifies the 'general spirit or character of something'. Example: The Leader of the Opposition set the tone for the meeting saying she was with the government in its fight against terrorism. One can raise or lower the tone of a conversation, occasion or an organisation. The tone of voice is important to an author, who sets out 'to move, divert and persuade' his or her readers. Edward Gibbon, the British historian, writes: 'The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declamation. Three times did I compose the first chapter (of 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'), and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with the effect'. Gibbon's history, with all its faults, lives mainly because of its literary qualities. It conveys 'the exhilaration of the first view, gained from some commanding mountain top, of a country hitherto unknown'. . Published on 25th May 2002 Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to mhdevan@chennaionline.com.
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