18 May 2011
By: MELISSA PANG
THE Returning Officer of the recent General Election, Mr Yam Ah Mee, endeared himself to Internet and television audiences with his monotonous delivery of the election results. He later told reporters that his robotic delivery was the result of a throat operation he had when he was young.
Two types of surgery can change a person’s voice.
One is the kind carried out on the voice box, or larynx, to improve a person’s voice.
The other kind of surgery, done to remove a tumour, for example, can have the reverse effect. This was the case with Broadway star Julie Andrews, who had benign vocal cord nodules removed in the 1990s. Her singing voice was never the same again.
Dr David Lau, a senior consultant at Singapore General Hospital’s department of otolaryngology, said one’s voice can also be affected indirectly as a result of injury to the nerves controlling the voice box, which makes the person sound breathy and weak.
This can occur in certain types of surgery in the neck or chest.
Dr Christopher Hobbs, a consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s ear, nose and throat department, said an individual with “reduced dynamic range” will sound rather monotonous and robotic.
Sometimes, this has its roots in what the person picked up while learning to talk, rather than a medical problem.
“In this case, it’s vocal misuse – not using the voice to its full potential. For example, if your father speaks monotonally, you’re brought up to speak that way too,” he said.
Insufficient use of inflection – changes in pitch or loudness – is also a form of vocal misuse.
Dr Lau said speech therapy may help reduce the monotony of a person’s speaking voice, though this would depend on why it became that way in the first place.
In most cases, surgery will not help, Dr Hobbs said.
Email: melpang@sph.com.sg
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