What Are Speech Patterns?

Everyone has their own pattern of speaking. 

In this article

1. What is a Speech Pattern?
2. Defining Your Style 
3. Types of Speech Patterns
4. Formal
5. Informal 
6. Why Are Speech Patterns Important?
7. Science Behind Speech Patterns
8. Conclusion

It’s a beautiful component of being human and serves as a unique fingerprint of a person’s identity. 

Understanding what speech patterns are and how they are formed is time well spent.

Utilizing speech patterns can be a powerful tool to influence and convince your listeners of the takeaway messages from your content. 

What is a Speech Pattern?

Speech pattern refers to a characteristic mode by which someone expresses themself. This differs from dialect, defined as regional variations in a language, most commonly called an ‘accent’.

Mannerisms regarding speech are particularly intriguing because everyone has their own speaking style. Acquiring the skill to recognize speech patterns can significantly increase the ease of creating media content. 

All speakers have a unique speech pattern; therefore, the same identifiers don’t suit all situations due to this fact alone.

Perhaps you may come across a person who uses lots of inflection or speaks rapidly. In such a situation, it would be appropriate to label them as having a dynamic speech pattern; however, the same qualifiers may not help you properly categorize another individual’s speech.

Interestingly, concerning their speech pattern, you could encounter a person whose rare vocabulary stands out most. You might find little use for mentioning the person’s inflections or speaking rate, since it was mostly normal.

Speech pattern identifiers should focus on the most outstanding elements of a person’s speech. Furthermore, when creating certain aspects of media, being keenly aware of these differences can go a long way. 

So when you want to tell your scriptwriters, voice actors, or other creative partners your vision, hone in on the elements which define a distinct character.

Defining Your Style 

Here are recurring characteristics that get mentioned often when the subject of Speech Patterns comes up:

• Inflection: This element highlights how an individual creates stress on the vocal elements in their speech. Elements of inflection may include prosody, intonation contours, rhythm, and up talk.

• Speech rate: The rate at which a person converses is an integral element of communication. It plays a pivotal role in scripting narrations, voiceovers, and audio ads. As a result of the limited time, you’ll have to compress your speech and speed at a high WPM rate. (Word per minute)

• Clarity: Many people pronounce and group words differently from one another. Although this makes talking with people intriguing, it also can be the source of much misunderstanding.

• Brevity: This category represents a speaker’s ability to express a lot in just a few words. People who speak with brevity are often referred to as concise.

• Emotive mood: A person’s mood can be part of their speech pattern. This is a factor that often affects the identifiers mentioned above. For instance, people who are generally brief are often labeled as curt or even abrasive.

While there are dozens of ways that you can speak and communicate with others, most often, you’ll fall into the categories of formal and informal. 

Now, these two categories are fluid and can house multiple speech patterns. For example, informal can include a little, to a lot of slang usage, while formal may only exclude slang, or could sound like an different language based on expertise. 

Types of Speech Patterns

Below are the primary types of speech patterns and how they influence the way we communicate:

Formal

Formal speech will always be used in professional or serious settings. It dictates proper syntax, grammar, word choice, and appropriateness.

Typically formal speech is spoken among politicians and other public figures.

Consider what the topic is and who you think your target audience is when you create content. If you’re teaching about business-related issues, you’ll likely go with a more formal tone rather than too casual.

Informal 

With informal speech patterns, people usually converse with the audience in a more relaxed manner that might include contractions, abbreviations, and slang phrases like “gonna” instead of “going to.” This speech pattern may be more appropriate for cooking videos, parenting, vlogs, beauty tips, and more. 

Slang or colloquialisms usually features terminology that is widely known amongst a particular group, but the language might not be comprehensible to others outside of this “circle”.

Think about jargon or regional dialects that are popular in certain professions like lawyers or doctors, or those who are from specific ethnic backgrounds might have a preferred way of speaking amongst one another. 

Using this speech pattern strategically can be an effective and powerful method to emotionally engage with your audience as you deliver a message. 

Why Are Speech Patterns Important?

Speech patterns are immensely important when it comes to influencing various types of buyers. Most people have to get roped in by the power of speech before they’ll consider what you’re trying to get them to buy into. 

Choosing the best speech pattern for impactful communication and understanding can help you better reach your target audience. 

The origins of speech date back over thousands of years. phonology and linguistics continue to try to understand how it all works together. 

While trying to determine if there are certain personalities and geographic regions that make you more inclined to choose a specific pattern over another, there’s not enough evidence to support this idea. 

Instead, many factors like age, gender, culture, vocation, social class, education, and other variables play a huge role. Some, more than others, will weigh heavily on an individual’s decision on how they express themselves. 

Science Behind Speech Patterns

Linguists can analyze how specific speech patterns relate to particular behaviors, including how they can affect someone’s social media use or influence their buying decisions.

It doesn’t matter whether your voice over needs to include formal speech in a British accent, or down-to-earth language for an urban setting, as long as you get the point across, that’s all that matters. 

You want whatever is spoken to add emotional value and an informative edge, while persuading the audience in some form. It’s a no-brainer that people pick the speech patterns that are most efficient and comfortable. 

Conclusion

Speech patterns are a powerful tool to help you craft persuasive and effective messages. If you need a voice actor for your project, we have a talent pool of over four million qualified individuals ready to help.

For all your voice over needs, we offer competitive rates, prompt responses, and free auditions from voice actors residing in more than 160 countries. 

By understanding the different types of speech patterns, their benefits, strategies for choosing the pattern, and how to convey your message effectively, you can create compelling content for your audience.