Affiliation:
1. University of Alberta, Canada
2. Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to describe the pretreatment acoustic characteristics of individuals with male-to-female gender identity (IMtFGI) and investigate the ability of the acoustic measures to predict ratings of gender, femininity, and vocal naturalness.
Method
This retrospective descriptive study included 2 groups of participants. Speakers were IMtFGI who had not previously received communication feminization treatment (
N
= 25). Listeners were members of the lay community (
N
= 30). Acoustic data were retrospectively obtained from pretreatment recordings, and pretreatment recordings also served as stimuli for 3 perceptual rating tasks (completed by listeners).
Results
Acoustic data generally were within normal limits for male speakers. All but 2 speakers were perceived to be male, limiting information about the relationship between acoustic measures and gender perception. Fundamental frequency (reading) significantly predicted femininity ratings (
p
= .000). A total of 3 stepwise regression models indicated that minimum frequency (range task), second vowel formant (sustained vowel), and shimmer percentage (sustained vowel) together significantly predicted naturalness ratings (
p
= .005,
p
= .003, and
p
= .002, respectively).
Conclusions
Study aims were achieved with the exception of acoustic predictors of gender perception, which could be described for only 2 speakers. Future research should investigate measures of prosody, voice quality, and other aspects of communication as predictors of gender, femininity, and naturalness.
Publisher
American Speech Language Hearing Association
Subject
Speech and Hearing,Linguistics and Language,Developmental and Educational Psychology,Otorhinolaryngology
Cited by
22 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献