Cross-dialectal analysis of English pitch range in male voices and its influence on aesthetic judgments of speech

Abstract

Abstract This study focuses on the differences in pitch register and pitch span across five accents of English, and investigates their potential effects on judgements of speech. We recorded two male middle-aged speakers for each of the following accents of English: Brighton, Manchester, Perth, New Jersey and Edmonton. Then, we modified pitch register in selected spontaneous speech recordings by raising the overall pitch in the recordings by 5 Hz and 15 Hz using Praat. The entire material was then randomized and prepared for an online survey. A group of 50 respondents (30 female, 20 male) who were non-native speakers of English were asked in a blind study to evaluate both the unmodified and modified recordings on a 7-point Likert scale in terms of their perceived attractiveness, friendliness, prestige and self-confidence. Overall, it has been found that pitch span can be a telling cue when evaluating perceived friendliness for both gender groups, while pitch register can affect male listeners in evaluating attractiveness and self-confidence. Finally, it seems that there is a an upper limit for what listeners can aesthetically accept in terms of pitch register, as the recordings with highest registers were disfavored by our respondents.