TransCrit, University of Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France.
VALIBEL, Catholic University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Percept Mot Skills. 2021 Feb;128(1):153-177. doi: 10.1177/0031512520973514. Epub 2020 Nov 17.
The present study concerns speech productions of female and male English/French bilingual speakers in both reading and semi-spontaneous speech tasks. We investigated various acoustic parameters: average fundamental sound frequency (F0), F0 range, F0 variance (), vowel formants (F1, F2, and F3), voice onset time (VOT) and H1-H2 (intensity difference between the first and the second harmonic frequencies, used to measure phonation type) in both languages. Our results revealed a significant effect of gender and language on all parameters. Overall, average F0 was higher in French while F0 modulation was stronger in English. Regardless of language, female speakers exhibited higher F0 than male speakers. Moreover, the higher average F0 in French was larger in female speakers. On the other hand, the smaller F0 modulation in French was stronger in male speakers. The analysis of vowel formants showed that overall, female speakers exhibited higher values than males. However, we found a significant cross-gender difference on F2 of the back vowel [u:] in English, but not on the vowel [u] in French. VOT of voiceless stops was longer in Female speakers in both languages, with a greater difference in English. VOT contrast between voiceless stops and their voiced counterparts was also significantly longer in female speakers in both languages. The scope of this cross-gender difference was greater in English. H1-H2 was higher in female speakers in both languages, indicating a breathier phonation type. Furthermore, female speakers tended to exhibit smaller H1-H2 in French, while the opposite was true in males. This resulted in a smaller cross-gender difference in French for this parameter. All these data support the idea of language- and gender-specific vocal norms, to which bilingual speakers seem to adapt. This constitutes a further argument to give social factors, such as gender dynamics, more consideration in phonetic studies.
本研究关注了英语/法语双语女性和男性说话者在阅读和半自发言语任务中的言语产生。我们研究了各种声学参数：平均基频（F0）、F0 范围、F0 方差（）、元音共振峰（F1、F2 和 F3）、嗓音起始时间（VOT）和 H1-H2（第一和第二谐音频率之间的强度差，用于测量发音类型）在两种语言中的表现。我们的结果表明，性别和语言对所有参数都有显著影响。总体而言，法语的平均 F0 较高，而英语的 F0 调制较强。无论语言如何，女性说话者的 F0 都高于男性说话者。此外，法语中女性的平均 F0 更高。另一方面，法语中 F0 调制较小的情况在男性说话者中更为明显。元音共振峰的分析表明，总体而言，女性说话者的数值高于男性说话者。然而，我们发现英语中后元音[u:]的 F2 在两性之间存在显著的性别差异，但法语中[u]的情况并非如此。两种语言中，女性说话者的清塞音 VOT 较长，英语中的差异更大。两种语言中，清塞音和浊塞音的 VOT 对比也在女性说话者中更长。这种跨性别差异的范围在英语中更大。两种语言中，女性说话者的 H1-H2 更高，表明发音类型更有呼吸感。此外，女性说话者在法语中倾向于表现出较小的 H1-H2，而男性则相反。这导致该参数在法语中两性之间的差异较小。所有这些数据都支持语言和性别特定的发声规范的观点，双语说话者似乎适应了这些规范。这进一步证明了在语音研究中，应该更多地考虑社会因素，如性别动态。
