hearing.

Pre-Change, talking was only effortless in the same room, small and quiet enough; windy outdoors forced people to stay close or raise voices — affecting not just how but what was or wasn’t being said. Now conversational practices evolve with the human body: sensitivity, selectivity of hearing and eyesight make talking unstrained over great separations, esp. if the voice is familiar (see also faraway music); brains learn to filter out distance's audio/video delay and the outer ear reshapes to reduce wind noise in flight. Articulation evolves too: the subdued “newly nuanced” voicing reminds of the earlier “close mike” revolution in singing.

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