Sub-phonemic correlates of gender and regional identity in California

Abstract

Given that the Northern and Southern California have large metropolitan areas geographically and culturally separated from each other, it is to be expected that each is developing a unique linguistic identity. Despite a handful of ethnographic studies showing otherwise (e.g., Hall-Lew 2009), the West has generally been lumped into a single dialect region (Labov etal. 2006). This paper presents data showing sub-phonemic differences between the regions that break along gender lines. Vowel productions from 14 (female = 8) Northern Californians (NCs) and 15 (female = 8) Southern Californians (SCs) were analyzed for regional differences in normalized vowel quality, voice quality (spectral tilt), pitch, and duration. No major differences in vowel quality were found. However, interactions were found between region and gender for duration and voice quality. Specifically, NC females had significantly longer word durations than NC males, with no difference between genders for SC. For voice quality, H1-H2 and H1-A3 measures both demonstrated significant differences between males and females for SC, with female voices being breathier, but with no differences for NC. Currently, a perception experiment is underway to determine if listeners can use these differences to categorize voices by region.