FEMALE AND MALE SPEECH: A STUDY OF VOWEL FORMANTS AND CONSONANT NOISE IN PARISIAN FRENCH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS

Abstract

The present study is an acoustic analysis of vowels and consonants in disyllabic words produced by 10 Northeastern American English speakers (5 females, 5 males) and 10 Parisian French speakers (5 females, 5 males). Vowel formant frequencies were measured, as well as initial voiceless consonants’ spectral centre of gravity. Significant cross-gender differences were obtained for each parameter, with higher frequencies for female speakers. Moreover, cross-language variations were found: female/male differences on F1 appeared to be greater in American English than in Parisian French speakers, and the opposite was true with consonant noise. Such results support the idea that cross-gender acoustic differences are partly language-dependent and therefore, socially constructed.