Bibliometric Analysis and Review of Literature on the Relationship Between Voice Production and Bilingualism.

Abstract

The spoken language may influence the way we produce our voice. Therefore, speak more than one language could affect voice production. However, there is limited evidence on the relationship between voice production and bilingualism. To characterize the relationship between bilingualism and voice production determined by means of voice acoustic parameters and voice perception. A review of literature was performed using four computerized databases. The keywords used were voice, bilingualism, and multilingualism. Relevant data were extracted from the publications on country and year of study, participants, sample size, characterization of voice production (acoustics, perceptual), and languages. A bibliometric analysis was performed for co-occurrence analysis. Quality assessment was conducted with the EPHPP tool. A total of 10 publications met our inclusion criteria. Nine of the articles compared English productions with another language. Included studies reported changes in fundamental frequency between English and Spanish, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, Korean, Welsh, and Hebrew. The co-occurrence analysis shows that fundamental frequency is the most reported parameter, and English is the most compared language among studies including bilingual speakers. Speaking a second language influences voice production determined by voice acoustic parameters, such as fundamental frequency. Therefore, language may be an important factor to take into consideration when planning assessment and intervention programs on the field of voice.