“Deep and raspy” or “High and squeaky”: a cross-linguistic study of voice perception and voice labeling

Authors

  • Begoña Payá Herrero Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Universidad de Alicante, Spain Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2008/02/0028/000087

Keywords:

vocal correlates, identity markers, voice perception, voice stereotypes, voice labels

Abstract

Vocal correlates for identity markers were sought by interviewing 60 candidates of three nationalities and by analysing their average pitch, intensity, speech rate and speech length. National differences were found in pitch and specially speech rate but no clear vocal correlates for the personality parameter of introversion/extroversion were found. An analysis of the voice labels given by the candidates showed that there are common voice stereotypes for sexy voices and unpleasant voices, despite some minor national differences in the use of labels such as sweet or nasal. Finally, a perception test proved that there is a high-interrater consistency in judgements about voice and personality and that basic emotions and attitudes are well recognised, irrespectively of the language knowledge.

 

References

Abercrombie, D. 1967. Elements of General Phonetics. Chicago: Aldine.

Laver, J. 1974. Labels for voices. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 4: 62-75.

Laver, J. and Trudgill, P. 1979. Phonetic and linguistic markers in speech. In Scherer, K.R. and Giles, H. (eds.), Social markers in speech, 1-32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Laver, J. 1991. The Gift of Speech. Papers in the Analysis of Speech and Voice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Rodero, E. 2001. El tono de la voz masculina y femenina en los informativos radiofónicos: un análisis comparativo. Valladolid: Congreso Internacional de Mujeres, Hombres y Medios de Comunicación. Retrieved 11/03/2007 from www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/rodero-emma-tono-voz-femenina.pdf

Osgood, C. 1964. Semantic Differential Technique in the Comparative Study of Cultures. American Anthropologist 66/3, 171-200.

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Published

01-01-2008

How to Cite

“Deep and raspy” or “High and squeaky”: a cross-linguistic study of voice perception and voice labeling. (2008). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 2(1), 109-112. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2008/02/0028/000087

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