voice

VMS = V = voice-net

voice vt.

To phone someone, as opposed to emailing them or connecting in talk mode. "I'm busy now; I'll voice you later."

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Internet Relay Chat

The "voice" attribute (+v) can be applied to users in a moderated (+m) IRC channel by a channel operator. It allows the said users to "speak" in the channel. The mode is redundant for channel operators, who can always speak.

Usage: "hey sugrGIRL13, u voice me?"

The moderated/voice attributes are commonly used in two ways:

1. To run a moderated discussion over IRC. Participants send questions and comments by private message to a moderator, who can either present the comments himself or "voice" the user to let her speak.
2. In conjunction with an IRC "bot," to secure a channel that comes under frequent attack.

The second use warrants a bit more explanation. Here's the scenario: an IRC bot that lives in the channel maintains a list of users who are persona non gratis. When a banned user joins the channel, the bot kicks them and sets a ban on the channel itself for a certain length of time. (IRC supports only a few bans on the channel at once.)

However, there can be a delay of several seconds between the time the malicious user joins the channel and the time that the bot kicks him. This time allows the invader to spout invective--sometimes a problem in a family-oriented channel.

To prevent this, the channel can be kept in moderated state all the time. When any user joins, the channel bot checks her username against the list of banned users; if she is not on the list, it "voices" her. This is highly effective at curbing malefactors, but can result in frustration for everyone else when the IRC network is "lagging": if a user joins on the far side of the lag, the bot may not see him for some time.

I found my grandmother's message on the answering machine
as I returned from her funeral. A last gift of her voice.

"Voice", is a basic quality of writing, and like many basic qualities of writing, it is hard to describe and easy to recognize.

Although languages all differ from each other, they usually have constraints on how a sentence can be constructed, using rules of syntax and grammar. An author then has a limited amount of room to play in as to how they express themselves, unless they choose to establish a breaking of grammar rules as a trademark, or alternatively to just focus on bending the standard rules of grammar, such as by using involved sentences with multiple clauses, as a hallmark, such as in the work of the late, great, David Foster Wallace.

However, even while keeping themselves to a conventional level of writing, writers can develop their unique voice. However, just how this is done is hard to describe, and is indeed one of the mysteries of writing. For one thing, "voice" can not be taken alone, but is allied with the genre that the writer chooses to work in. To take a somewhat random example, Judith Krantz and Dave Barry have obviously distinct authorial voices, but that is tightly wound up with the fact that one is writing purple romances, and the other is a humor columnist. There are some very good writers who are not stylistically in possession of a distinct voice, and yet are still distinctive writers because they have an original form of plotting or character development.

Along with developing a distinct voice, often writers have to learn how to muffle their voice. Most journalists are taught to not let their writing get in the way of the story, and have to rely on strict style guides to tell them how to write. That is why any given New York Times article sounds like any other New York Times article.

Another issue is that the voice in a piece of fiction can be the author's voice, or it can be the voice of the characters speaking, or even the voice of a narrator who is somewhat separate from the author. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, the narrator and the character's voice is very medieval and somewhat austere, which is actually not all that similar to Professor Tolkien's normal voice, which was fairly modern. To be able to create multiple voices is the sign of an accomplished and skillful author.

Voice (?), n. [OE. vois, voys, OF. vois, voiz, F. voix, L. vox, vocis, akin to Gr. a word, a voice, Skr. vac to say, to speak, G. erwahnen to mention. Cf. Advocate, Advowson, Avouch, Convoke, Epic, Vocal, Vouch, Vowel.]

1.

Sound uttered by the mouth, especially that uttered by human beings in speech or song; sound thus uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character; as, the human voice; a pleasant voice; a low voice.

He with a manly voice saith his message.
Chaucer.

Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman.
Shak.

Thy voice is music.
Shak.

Join thy voice unto the angel choir.
Milton.

2. Phon.

Sound of the kind or quality heard in speech or song in the consonants b, v, d, etc., and in the vowels; sonant, or intonated, utterance; tone; -- distinguished from mere breath sound as heard in f, s, sh, etc., and also whisper.

Voice, in this sense, is produced by vibration of the so-called vocal cords in the larynx (see Illust. of Larynx) which act upon the air, not in the manner of the strings of a stringed instrument, but as a pair of membranous tongues, or reeds, which, being continually forced apart by the outgoing current of breath, and continually brought together again by their own elasticity and muscular tension, break the breath current into a series of puffs, or pulses, sufficiently rapid to cause the sensation of tone. The power, or loudness, of such a tone depends on the force of the separate pulses, and this is determined by the pressure of the expired air, together with the resistance on the part of the vocal cords which is continually overcome. Its pitch depends on the number of aerial pulses within a given time, that is, on the rapidity of their succession. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 5, 146, 155.

3.

The tone or sound emitted by anything.

After the fire a still small voice.
1 Kings xix. 12.

Canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
Job xl. 9.

The floods have lifted up their voice.
Ps. xciii. 3.

O Marcus, I am warm'd; my heart
Leaps at the trumpet's voice.
Addison.

4.

The faculty or power of utterance; as, to cultivate the voice.

5.

Language; words; speech; expression; signification of feeling or opinion.

I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
Gal. iv. 20.

My voice is in my sword.
Shak.

Let us call on God in the voice of his church.
Bp. Fell.

6.

Opinion or choice expressed; judgment; a vote.

Sic. How now, my masters! have you chose this man?
1 Cit. He has our voices, sir.
Shak.

Some laws ordain, and some attend the choice Of holy senates, and elect by voice.
Dryden.

7.

Command; precept; -- now chiefly used in scriptural language.

So shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.
Deut. viii. 20.

8.

One who speaks; a speaker.

"A potent voice of Parliament."

Tennyson.

9. Gram.

A particular mode of inflecting or conjugating verbs, or a particular form of a verb, by means of which is indicated the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the verb expresses.

Active voice Gram., that form of the verb by which its subject is represented as the agent or doer of the action expressed by it. -- Chest voice Phon., a kind of voice of a medium or low pitch and of a sonorous quality ascribed to resonance in the chest, or thorax; voice of the thick register. It is produced by vibration of the vocal cords through their entire width and thickness, and with convex surfaces presented to each other. -- Head voice Phon., a kind of voice of high pitch and of a thin quality ascribed to resonance in the head; voice of the thin register; falsetto. In producing it, the vibration of the cords is limited to their thin edges in the upper part, which are then presented to each other. -- Middle voice Gram., that form of the verb by which its subject is represented as both the agent, or doer, and the object of the action, that is, as performing some act to or upon himself, or for his own advantage. -- Passive voice. Gram. See under Passive, a. -- Voice glide Pron., the brief and obscure neutral vowel sound that sometimes occurs between two consonants in an unaccented syllable (represented by the apostrophe), as in able (a"b'l). See Glide, n., 2. -- Voice stop. See Voiced stop, under Voiced, a. -- With one voice, unanimously. "All with one voice . . . cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Acts xix. 34.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Voice, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Voiced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Voicing (?).]

1.

To give utterance or expression to; to utter; to publish; to announce; to divulge; as, to voice the sentiments of the nation.

"Rather assume thy right in silence and . . . then voice it with claims and challenges."

Bacon.

It was voiced that the king purposed to put to death Edward Plantagenet.
Bacon.

2. Phon.

To utter with sonant or vocal tone; to pronounce with a narrowed glottis and rapid vibrations of the vocal cords; to speak above a whisper.

3.

To fit for producing the proper sounds; to regulate the tone of; as, to voice the pipes of an organ.

4.

To vote; to elect; to appoint.

[Obs.]

Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Voice, v. i.

To clamor; to cry out.

[Obs.]

South.

 

© Webster 1913.