Nanjing Normal University, China.
Lang Speech. 2022 Dec;65(4):1096-1109. doi: 10.1177/00238309211000783. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
This study investigated acoustic and perceptual characteristics of Mandarin speech produced by gay and heterosexual male speakers. Acoustic analysis of monosyllabic words showed significant differences between the two groups in voice fundamental frequency (F0), F1 of low vowel, and duration of aspiration/frication in consonants. The acoustic patterns on F0, formants, and center of gravity as well as spectral skewness of /s/ differed from those reported for Western languages like American English, which could be interpreted from a sociopsychological point of view based on different acceptability of gay identity in the two societies. The results of a perceptual experiment revealed significant but weak correlations between the acoustic parameters and the score of perceived gayness, which was significantly higher on gay speech than on heterosexual male speech. Although the observed F0 and F1 patterns in Mandarin gay speech were opposite to the stereotype of gayness, gay identity can still be identified to some extent from speech due to the existence of other acoustic cues such as a longer fricative duration, which is not a stereotype of gayness but has been consistently observed in Mandarin and Western languages.
本研究调查了同性恋和异性恋男性说话者所发出的普通话语音的声学和感知特征。对单音节词的声学分析表明，两组之间在基频（F0）、低元音 F1 和辅音送气/摩擦时长方面存在显著差异。F0、共振峰和重心的声学模式以及/s/的谱偏度与西方语言（如美国英语）的模式不同，这可以从两个社会对同性恋身份的不同可接受性的社会心理角度来解释。感知实验的结果表明，声学参数与感知同性恋得分之间存在显著但较弱的相关性，同性恋语音的得分明显高于异性恋男性语音。尽管在普通话同性恋语音中观察到的 F0 和 F1 模式与同性恋的刻板印象相反，但由于存在其他声学线索，如更长的摩擦时长，同性恋身份仍可以在一定程度上从语音中识别出来，这不是同性恋的刻板印象，但在普通话和西方语言中一直存在。
