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The expression of gender through same and opposite-sex imitation in adult voices

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posted on 2023-06-08, 10:26 authored by Valentina Cartei, David Reby
The frequency components of the human voice play a major role in signaling the gender of the speaker. female voices are characterised by higher f0, higher formants and wider overall formant spacing (through VT shortening) than male voices. A voice imitation paradigm was used to investigate individuals knowledge and ability to make behavioural adjustments of these components in order to modulate their expression of voice gender. Twenty seven native American-English speakers were asked to read out loud vowels embedded in the /hVd/ context first using their normal voice, and then trying to sound as masculine or as feminine as possible. It was found that both men and women raise their F0 and shorten their vocal tract when feminising their voice, and lower their F0 and lengthen their vocal tract when masculinising their voice. These results, which indicate that speakers use behavioural strategies, within the biological constraints of speech production, to vary voice gender expression along a masculinity/femininity continuum, are discussed within the wider hypothesis of a "gender code" in the human voice.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Presentation Type

  • speech

Event location

Groningen

Event type

conference

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-20

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