People often say we learn more about others through their nonverbal communication than through their words. But our words also convey a great deal of content beyond the message they express. From others' accents and other vocal characteristics, we can learn their age, gender, region of origin (e.g., Southern US), racial or ethnic background, whether they had a different native language, and sometimes what that native language might have been. Neurotypical people can recognize all of these characteristics except for region given very little information--for example, given short samples or whispered speech. (With regional accents, they require a longer speech sample that offers more opportunities for subtle dialect variation).