Voice Quality And Gender Identification: Acoustic And Perceptual Analysis
Date
2012-07-09
Authors
Cain Porter, Courtney
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Abstract
Description
The voice is a fundamental method of communication and as such, helps in our efforts to define our identity. Projection of the appropriate voice is crucially important to transgender individuals in transition for acceptance as their identified gender. This study attempts to identify and examine the relationship between acoustic measurements of voice quality and the perception of speaker gender from audio recordings, including the male-to-female transgender voice, based on several acoustic properties that have been identified by previous studies. Recordings of female, male and transgender voices were acoustically analyzed for properties relating to differences in voice quality between men and women. Listeners then identified the gender of the recorded voices, with the intention of evaluating which voices are perceived as either male or female along with a corresponding rating of masculinity or femininity. What acoustic measurements of voice quality cue listeners to gender and do they correlate with gender perception?
Keywords
voice quality, transgender voice, breathiness, acoustic measurements, gender perception