Article published in:
Hispanic Linguistics at the Crossroads: Theoretical linguistics, language acquisition and language contact. Proceedings of the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium 2013
Edited by Rachel Klassen, Juana M. Liceras and Elena Valenzuela
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 4] 2015
► pp. 293–312

Sociophonetic analysis of young Peninsular Spanish women’s voice quality

| University of Massachusetts Amherst
| University of Michigan
| University at Buffalo (SUNY)
In the speech of certain female speakers of Peninsular Spanish (PS) one observes the use of hoarse voice, a salient non-modal phonation type. In this paper, we examined its phonetic correlates and social meaning. Among women who have hoarse voice, significantly lower H1-H2 values were found than those who have modal voice. These production data were then used as stimuli in a classification task where 50 native listeners of PS described the personal characteristics of speakers from each group. The hoarse group was judged as apathetic and strong significantly more than the modal group, which, in turn, was judged as feminine, intelligent, and urban significantly more than the hoarse group. hoarse voice speakers were also judged as smokers significantly more often than modal group speakers. Our results show that voice quality carries social meaning in PS for young Spanish women.
Keywords: Peninsular Spanish, phonation type, social meaning, spectral tilt, voice quality
Published online: 30 July 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.4.15arm
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Henriksen, Nicholas
2019.  In Recent Advances in the Study of Spanish Sociophonetic Perception [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 21], ► pp. 328 ff. Crossref logo
Kim, Ji Young
2017.  In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 11 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 11], ► pp. 191 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 november 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

References

References

Abercrombie, D.
(1967) Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Awan, S.N., & Roy, N.
(2005) Acoustic prediction of voice type in women with functional dysphonia. Journal of Voice, 19(2), 268–282. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bates, D.M.
(2005) Fitting linear mixed models in R. R News, 5, 27–30.Google Scholar
Blankenship, B.
(2002) The timing of nonmodal phonation in vowels. Journal of Phonetics, 30, 163–191. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Campbell-Kibler, K.
(2010) The effect of speaker information on attitudes towards (ing). Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29(2), 214–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clopper, C.G., Rohrbeck, K.L. & Wagner. L.
(2011) Perception of dialect variation by young adults with High-Functioning Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 740–754. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clopper, C.G.
(2008) Auditory free classification: Methods and analysis. Behavior Research Methods, 40(2), 575–581. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Damborenea Tajada, J., Fernández Liesa, R., Llorente Arenas E., Naya Gálvez M.J., Marín Garrido C., Rueda Gormedino P., & Ortiz García A.
(1999) The effect of tobacco consumption on acoustic voice analysis. Acta Otorrinolaringológica Española, 50(6), 448–52.Google Scholar
DiCanio, C.
(2009) The phonetics of register in Takhian Thong Chong. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 39, 162–188. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2012a) Coarticulation between tone and glottal consonants in Itunyoso Trique. Journal of Phonetics, 40, 162–176. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2012b) Spectral tilt script for Praat (computer script), áhttp://​www​.haskins​.yale​.edu​/staff​/dicanio​/scripts​.htmlñGoogle Scholar
Esling, J.H.
(1978) The identification of features of voice quality in social groups. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 7, 18–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Esling, J.H., & Edmondson, J.A.
(2011) Acoustical analysis of voice quality for sociophonetic purposes. In M. Di Paolo & M. Yaeger-Dror (Eds.), Sociophonetics: A student’s guide (pp. 131–148). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Esposito, C.M.
(2003) Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec Phonation. Unpublished MA Dissertation. University of California-Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Fischer-Jørgensen, E.
(1967) Phonetic analysis of breathy (murmured) vowels in Gujarati. Indian Linguistics, 28, 71–139.Google Scholar
Garellek, M.
(2012) A reanalysis of glottal stops and glottalization in English. Poster presented at LabPhon13, Stuttgart, Germany.
Goldinger, S., Pisoni, D., & Logan, J.
(1991) On the nature of talker variability effects on recall of spoken word lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17(1), 152–162. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gönen, J., & Heller, G.
(2005) Concordance probability and discriminatory power in proportional hazards regression. Biometrika, 97, 965–970. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
González, J., & Carpi, A.
(2004) Early effects of smoking on the voice: A multidimensional study. Medical Science Monitor, 10(12), 649–656.Google Scholar
Gordon, M., & Ladefoged, P.
(2001) Phonation types: A crosslinguistic overview. Journal of Phonetics, 29, 383–406. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Henriksen, N., & Harper, S.
(2014) Re-considering /s/-lenition: An acoustic analysis of /sp, st, sk/ clusters in Manchego Spanish. Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kirk, P.L., Ladefoged, J., & Ladefoged, P.
(1993) Quantifying acoustic properties of modal, breathy, and creaky vowels in Jalapa Mazatec. In A. Mattina & T. Montler (Eds.), American Indian linguistics and ethnography in honor of Lawrence C. Thompson (pp. 435–450). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Kong, E.J., Beckman, M.E., & Edwards, J.
(2011) Why are Korean tense stops acquired so early: The role of acoustic properties. Journal of Phonetics, 39, 196–211. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kreiman, J., Geratt, B., & Dowla Khan, S.
(2010) Effects of native language on perception of voice quality. Journal of Phonetics, 38(4), 588–593. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ladefoged, P.
(1971) Preliminaries to linguistic phonetics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Laver, J.
(1979) The description of voice quality in general phonetic theory. Edinburgh University Department of Linguistics Work in Progress, 12, 30–52.Google Scholar
Mayer, M.
(1969) Frog, Where Are You? New York, NY: Dial Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, K., & Thomas, E.R.
(2011) Cepstral peak prominence as a method for gauging ethnic differences in phonation. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 40, Washington, DC.
Mendoza, E., Valencia, N., Muñoz, J. & Trujillo, H.
(1996) Differences in voice quality between men and women: Use of the long-term average spectrum (LTAS). Journal of Voice, 10 (1), 59–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, N.
(2011) The semiotic hitchhiker’s guide to creaky voice: Circulation and gendered hardcore in a Chicana/o gang persona. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 21(2), 261–280. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mullenix, J.W., Pisoni, D., & Martin, C.S.
(1989) Some effects of talker variability on spoken word recognition. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 365–378. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Newman, M., & Wu, A.
(2011) Do you sound Asian when you speak English? Racial identification and voice in Chinese and Korean-Americans’ English. American Speech, 86, 152–178. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pisoni, D., & Lively, S.E.
(1995) Variability and invariance in speech perception: A new look at some old problems in perceptual learning. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language speech research (pp. 433–459). Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Podesva, R.J.
(2007) Phonation type as a stylistic variable: The use of falsetto in constructing a persona. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11, 478–504. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2013) Gender and the social meaning of non-modal phonation types. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 37, 427–448.Google Scholar
Purnell, T., Idsardi, W., & Baugh, J.
(1999) Perceptual and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification. Journal of Social Psychology, 18(1), 10–30.Google Scholar
Stuart-Smith, J.
(1999) Glasgow: Accent and voice quality. In P. Foulkes & G.J. Docherty (Eds.), Urban voices (pp. 203–222). London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Szakay, A.
(2012) Voice quality as a marker of ethnicity in New Zealand: From acoustics to perception. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16(3), 382–397. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thongkum, T.
(1991) An instrumental study of chong registers. In J. Davidson (Ed.), Essays in Mon-Khmer linguistics in honor of H. L. Shorto, (pp.141–160). London: School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
Trittin, P., & de Santos y Lleó, A.
(1995) Voice quality analysis of male and female Spanish speakers. Speech Communication, 16, 359–368. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Walton, J.H., & Orlikoff, R.F.
(1994) Speaker race identification from acoustic cues in the voice signal. Journal of Speech Hearing Research, 37(4), 738–745. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wayland, R., & Jongman, A.
(2003) Acoustic correlates of breathy and clear vowels: The case of Khmer. Journal of Phonetics, 31, 181–201. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, V., & Martin, D.
(1997) Acoustic correlates of dysphonia: Type and severity. Journal of Communication Disorders, 30(5), 403–415. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yuasa, I.P.
(2010) Creaky voice: A new feminine voice quality for young urban-oriented upwardly mobile American women? American Speech, 85, 315–337. CrossrefGoogle Scholar