Usually it's my own perceived voice, occasionally these days it's Mark from Peep Show.
Charlie Tunoku is a lover and a fighter.Mine is my own voice. I do not know why, but for some reason I find it odd it wouldn't be that way.
Devypu's~ Big Pony :3When I've been using English for a while, my internal monologue switches to it. But of course, it switches back very quickly when I start using my native tongue.
As for how it sounds like, that also varies depending on the language. My Italian internal monologue sounds more or less like me, I think. My English internal monologue, however, is not very verbalized at all — it is more visual, and I perceive it more or less as writing.
I suppose that it depends from the fact that I started learning English relatively late (at 11), and that for most of my life I've been reading and writing English far more often than I've been speaking it and listening to it...
edited 1st Mar '12 12:25:54 AM by Carciofus
But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.Gilbert Gottfried.
It's my own voice, but I'm pretty sure the pitch (or is it tone, I forget) is off a bit. Like how when you say something and listen to a recording of it, and your voice is a bit higher or lower than you heard while you were saying it. Or maybe that's just me. It's about that same pitch change from how I hear myself.
Sometimes if I try to get my thoughts to sound like someone else, well, it doesn't work very well. (I think) it sounds / would sound like I'm trying to imitate the person's voice, even though I'm not actually saying anything.
With the exception of music. But that's different.
Also, I'm not really counting how intrusive thoughts or random 'background thoughts' sound.
On a similar note, I'm wondering how quickly I think compared to other people. I pretty much just think at talking speed. Although, if I focus on it, whenever I think something, I can feel the thought planned out before I 'say' it in my mind.
And to say I was nervous... it wouldn't be quite enough.Rarely. And when it does, it is not generally fully formed phrases, just disconnected words and mumbles.
A fun example: in Italian, "dai" (pronounced exactly like the English verb "die") means more or less "come on". Now, one day I was having a bit of trouble concentrating on what I was studying, and so I said "dai, <myname>" (as in, come on, <myname>, you can work better than this).
But from the point of the people I was nearby, I had just loudly wished death on myself...
My own voice, as I perceive that it should be. No artificial heightening to sound less intimidating and no effected newscaster accent.
When speaking or reading another language (that I understand), it switches pretty smoothly back and forth.
edited 1st Mar '12 3:14:44 AM by Exelixi
Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-My own voice, very fast, "I wonder if..." is common, imagined "um" or "ar" is not too rare (odd because unlike the rest they don't come out as the imagined sounds but, if I had to try describing it, rather more like what you hear when you yawn), sometimes in Japanese. I don't really notice a switch for when I speak/read Japanese - it's usually just that the English:Japanese ratio changes. If I'm in private I will talk to myself sometimes - I find that I think more clearly and more decisively when I properly externalise my thoughts, and speech is more convenient than writing or other methods, often.
edited 1st Mar '12 4:02:10 AM by ekuseruekuseru

When you think in words, does it sound like a voice, and what does it sound like? Same questions for the voice you think in when you read text. Also, for multilingual people, how does it change with what language you're reading?
Mine is a voice in spoken English — I think in American English phonetics and all that — but it usually doesn't seem to have any identifiable vocal traits beyond that. The abstract sounds are there, but there's no information about the pitch or volume or quality of it; it's almost like a concept of a "generic voice" or something.
I'm curious if it's similar for other people.