Tone of voice matters, because it helps us to express the feelings behind the words we use, and may reflect among other things, our social culture, where we come from, our age, social status, education and command of language, our sense of ourselves, our attitudes, our state of health and our current mood. The timbre of our voice may help or hinder our connection with someone, even if we may be hardly, if ever, conscious of it.
Over the years, I’ve heard a number of stories of people living with dementia who have become newly attached, or antagonistic to another person because the person reminds them of a family member or friend they once liked or someone they disliked. It is often something in the tone of the person’s voice that has created this attraction or repulsion.