Or, rather, how to analyze and emulate someone's voice, mannerisms, and body language.
Say you're learning a new language and want to sound and act as a native would, or want to know what mannerisms make you stand out, or just want to emulate the dulcet tones and cool personality of Dave Wittenberg's Kakashi Hatake.
How do we begin to break that down?
Essentially, some /diy/ practical linguistics, nonverbal and otherwise.
I guess I could start.
Voice:
The IPA is essential when you're doing things with voice, in my opinion. It's an alphabet for every sound a human can make by speech. Immensely useful for teasing apart why your pronunciations may be off in a new language, but doesn't really cover cadence or emotion.
There's a database of accents out there so that you can practice emulating the small bite-sized quirks of any particular accent, but I don't remember the name. If there are any voice actors out there that know...
Mannerisms:
I think maybe stylometry would be its own thread.
I don't have too many resources/ways to analyze for this one; just some anecdotal examples I can give.
The US had to train its spies to fit into the culture and avoid shibboleths. For example, Americans tend to lean when they stand, and begin counting from the index finger rather than the thumb.
Japanese people might point at their noses in reference to themselves.
As for manner of speaking, I have no clues.
Body Language:
I learned how to analyze body language and expressions from art tutorials online.
Want to know what makes a sad face *sad*? Artists draw them for a living. The brow tends to furrow, the eyebrows and eyes scrunch up, and you have a frown. Maybe you want a face that's less intense and more distant? They draw those faces too.
Works when you want to read people, too, and don't have the intuition.
Artists also have to communicate to their audiences with greater body language, the position of the limbs, etc. So, what makes a pose? Your pelvis tends to move forward when you're comfortably standing and not stiff and rigid.
Our lovely Kakashi, for example, puts his hands comfortably in his pockets most of the time he isn't reading, and has a slight forward slouch.
When your arms are close to your center as opposed to outstretched or by your side, you appear more closed off to the world and inward-focused.
That's how you make an introvert *look* introverted.
Useful, right? Let me know what you think, Lain.