Male Speakers Research Articles

Analysis of Formant Frequencies and Vowel Articulation in the Spoken Standard Nigerian English of Undergraduate Students

The study compares the first two formants' frequencies in the speech of male and female undergraduate speakers of Standard Nigerian English at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The study examined eight monophthongs produced in the CVC context (hVd) by 40 males and 40 females, and analysed the vowel quality and phonetic vowel space used by the two gender groups using the Linear Predictive Coding and spectrogram techniques. The findings reveal that there are differences in vowel realisation and quality between male and female speakers, which affect their accents. Specifically, the male undergraduates exhibit compression in the phonetic vowel space while their female counterparts show expansion. This study contributes to the understanding of the vowel space in the speech of male and female speakers, and how these differences may influence speech accent.

Trends in the proportion of women speakers at North American Allergy and Immunology conferences, 2008 to 2020

BackgroundWomen in medicine continue to be underrepresented at medical conferences. Previous studies have evaluated the proportion of invited female speakers across multiple specialties and evaluated factors that may have led to this disparity. The field of Allergy and Immunology has often been excluded and analyses have not illustrated how the trends have changed over the past decade. ObjectiveTo evaluate the distribution of invited speakers by gender over time at the 3 largest North American Allergy and Immunology conferences. MethodsThis retrospective longitudinal analysis used conference programs from 2008 to 2020 from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI), the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI), and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI). The gender (binary definition, man or woman, based on names, photos, pronouns, from conference programs and institutional profiles) of invited speakers was analyzed as the primary outcome, and planning committee members, and multispeaker sessions as secondary outcomes. These data were compared with publicly available data on the composition of the specialty by gender in the United States and Canada. ResultsWomen speakers at AAAAI, ACAAI, and CSACI conferences have historically been lower than male speakers and underrepresented compared with specialty composition. However, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of women speakers over time for all 3 conferences individually (AAAAI: 23.7% in 2008, 41.1% by 2020; ACAAI: 16.7% in 2008, 37.3% by 2020; CSACI: 19.4% in 2008, 54.8% by 2020; P < .001 for each) and combined (21.3% in 2008, 40.7% by 2020, P < .001). This trend coincides with a significant increase in women on the planning committee (all conferences: 20% in 2008, 50.6% by 2020; P < .001). There is also a decreasing trend over time for men-only multispeaker sessions. ConclusionThis study sheds light on the trends of women speaker representation at Allergy and Immunology conferences and provides clarity on future needs to reach equal representation in this field.

Attitude towards Jordanian Arabic Dialects: A Sociolinguistic Perspective

This study investigates the unequal attitude people have toward the main spoken dialects in Jordan. Eight stereotypical features were considered: intelligibility and clarity, prestige, elegance, education, social status, accent thickness, courage, and generosity. It examines how the distribution of attitude differs in different contexts, how it can affect employability chances, and how responses can be argued for within the social identity theory. An evaluative/matched guise test with eight recordings of the dialects by male and female speakers was answered by 234 respondents of different ages, genders and dialects. Responses were collected from three non-native speakers of any of the Jordanian Arabic dialects (Egyptian, Iraqi, and Druze). Results demonstrated that the urban dialect has the most positive attitudes regarding intelligibility, prestige, elegance, education, and social status, but the least positive attitudes regarding courage, generosity, and accent thickness, in which the Bedouin dialect scored the most positive attitudes. Attitude may change when changing the context of judgment. Such attitudes were found to affect employability chances especially for jobs that require speaking skills. Evaluation also may be affected if the speaker is from a group which is different or similar to that of the respondent. These reports may be taken as substantial evidence of the power of language ideologies and social psychology in speech communities with which individuals can align themselves. Keywords: Language Attitude; Dialect; Jordanian Arabic; Social Image.

Dialect and gender perception in relation to the intelligibility of low-pass and high-pass filtered spontaneous speecha).

Most cues to speech intelligibility are within a narrow frequency range, with its upper limit not exceeding 4 kHz. It is still unclear whether speaker-related (indexical) information is available past this limit or how speaker characteristics are distributed at frequencies within and outside the intelligibility range. Using low-pass and high-pass filtering, we examined the perceptual salience of dialect and gender cues in both intelligible and unintelligible speech. Setting the upper frequency limit at 11 kHz, spontaneously produced unique utterances (n = 400) from 40 speakers were high-pass filtered with frequency cutoffs from 0.7 to 5.56 kHz and presented to listeners for dialect and gender identification and intelligibility evaluation. The same material and experimental procedures were used to probe perception of low-pass filtered and unmodified speech with cutoffs from 0.5 to 1.1 kHz. Applying statistical signal detection theory analyses, we found that cues to gender were well preserved at low and high frequencies and did not depend on intelligibility, and the redundancy of gender cues at higher frequencies reduced response bias. Cues to dialect were relatively strong at low and high frequencies; however, most were in intelligible speech, modulated by a differential intelligibility advantage of male and female speakers at low and high frequencies.

The Acoustics of Gender in Indian English: Toward Forensic Profiling in a Multilingual Context

The present study is an acoustic analysis of Indian English, specifically examining the speech patterns and characteristics of three different groups with different native languages. This study investigates fundamental frequency (fo), fo range, fo variance, formant frequencies, and vowel space size in 42 native male and female speakers of Odia, Bangla, and Hindi. Furthermore, it investigated the potential correlation between fundamental frequency and vowel space, examining whether variations in vowel space size could be influenced by gender-specific perceptual factors. The paper emphasizes that in a multilingual context, gender identification can be efficiently correlated with both fo and formant frequencies. To measure a range of acoustic characteristics, speech samples were collected from the recording task. Analysis was done on PRAAT. The study revealed significant differences between genders for the examined acoustic characteristics. Results indicate differences in the size of gender-specific variations among the language groups, with females exhibiting more significant differences in fo, formant frequencies, and vowel space than males. The findings show no significant correlation between fo and vowel space area, indicating that other features are responsible for large vowel space for females. These findings display significant potential towardcreating a robust empirical framework for gender profiling that can be utilized in a wide range of forensic linguistics investigations.

An Acoustic Analysis of Voice Onset Time in the Production of Voiceless Plosives in English and Iraqi Turkmen

This paper is a study of voice onset time, VOT, in Iraqi Turkmen and English. The stops /t, k/ were used in initial position and were embedded in words which were presented to ten native speakers of Iraqi Turkmen and four English native speakers. Recordings were made and analyzed using computer software that generated a spectrogram for each word (prrat). Results prove that stops in Iraqi Turkmen and in English occur at the same place along the VOT. The study also found that Place of articulation has a significant effect on VOT values and asserts the strong relationship between VOT values and place of articulation. Moreover vowel context has its significant effect on VOT values and asserts the strong relationship between VOT values and vowel context. Additionally, it is found that gender impact on VOT values varied from one language group to another, gender has no significant effect in the production of voiceless plosives in Iraqi Turkmen. Whereas English male speakers produce longer voice onset time than Female speakers.

The Acoustic and Perceptual Correlates of Gender in Children's Voices.

This study investigates the perceptual and acoustic correlates of gender in prepubertal voices. The study is part of a longitudinal project analyzing recordings of circa 60 German primary school children from the first to fourth grades (6- to 10-year-olds). Spontaneous and content-controlled audio recordings were made of 62 first-grade children (29 girls, 33 boys; age: 6- to 7-year-olds) from two German primary schools. Information on gender conformity was also recorded. A total of 167 listeners judged the gender of the voices on a 7-point scale. The results of the listening experiments and gender conformity ratings were related to a range of typical acoustic parameters. Measures of self-reported gender conformity differ significantly between the boys and the girls. Sixteen of the 62 children show unambiguous gender attributions in the listening experiment. A hierarchical cluster analysis including gender perception, gender conformity, and acoustic parameters shows four different types of speakers. Two multiple regression models revealed a significant main effect of fundamental frequency on the gender perception ratings of the listening experiment across and within gender. Significant correlations were found between the center of gravity and skewness of the sibilants and gender conformity, especially for the male speakers. Fundamental frequency plays an important role in influencing perceptual judgments, whereas sibilant spectra are correlated with gender conformity. In further listening experiments, we will examine in more detail the role of individual acoustic parameters and analyze how the vocal expression of gender and gender conformity in individual children develops before reaching puberty.

Investigation of Cross-Language and Stimulus-Dependent Effects on the McGurk Effect with Finnish and Japanese Speakers and Listeners.

In the McGurk effect, perception of a spoken consonant is altered when an auditory (A) syllable is presented with an incongruent visual (V) syllable (e.g., A/pa/V/ka/ is often heard as /ka/ or /ta/). The McGurk effect provides a measure for visual influence on speech perception, becoming stronger the lower the proportion of auditory correct responses. Cross-language effects are studied to understand processing differences between one's own and foreign languages. Regarding the McGurk effect, it has sometimes been found to be stronger with foreign speakers. However, other studies have shown the opposite, or no difference between languages. Most studies have compared English with other languages. We investigated cross-language effects with native Finnish and Japanese speakers and listeners. Both groups of listeners had 49 participants. The stimuli (/ka/, /pa/, /ta/) were uttered by two female and male Finnish and Japanese speakers and presented in A, V and AV modality, including a McGurk stimulus A/pa/V/ka/. The McGurk effect was stronger with Japanese stimuli in both groups. Differences in speech perception were prominent between individual speakers but less so between native languages. Unisensory perception correlated with McGurk perception. These findings suggest that stimulus-dependent features contribute to the McGurk effect. This may have a stronger influence on syllable perception than cross-language factors.

Body Perception From Connected Speech: Speaker Height Discrimination from Natural Sentences and Sine-Wave Replicas with and without Pitch.

In addition to language, the human voice carries information about the physical characteristics of speakers, including their body size (height and weight). The fundamental speaking frequency, perceived as voice pitch, and the formant frequencies, or resonators of the vocal tract, are the acoustic speech parameters that have been most intensely studied for perceiving a speaker's body size. In this study, we created sine-wave (SW) replicas of connected speech (sentences) uttered by 20 male and 20 female speakers, consisting of three time-varying sinusoidal waves matching the frequency pattern of the first three formants of each sentence. These stimuli only provide information about the formant frequencies of a speech signal. We also created a new experimental condition by adding a sinusoidal replica of the voice pitch of each sentence. Results obtained from a binary discrimination task revealed that (a) our SW replicas provided sufficient useful information to accurately judge the speakers' body height at an above chance level; (b) adding the sinusoidal replica about the voice pitch did not significantly increase accuracy; and (c) stimuli from female speakers were more informative for body height detection and allowed higher perceptual accuracy, due to a stronger correlation between formant frequencies and actual body height than stimuli from male speakers.

Instrumental Analysis of English Vowels Produced by Male and Female Zilfaawi Arabic Speakers

Arab and non-Arab English as a foreign language (EFL) students continue to have difficulty pronouncing English vowels accurately. To examine this, our study analyzes how male and female Saudi EFL students pronounce English monophthongs when compared to native speakers assessed in previous research. Gender-related variations between male and female Arab English speakers are also explored. Formant frequencies (F1 and F2) are employed to evaluate vowel quality, with vowel duration measured to investigate vowel length. Learners’ pronunciations of English words containing vowels of interest are used to collect data. Five male and five female EFL learners produced English monophthongs in the /hVd/ context. We then compare the results with previous data on native English speakers and conduct acoustic analysis. Regarding duration, male non-native English speakers’ data are compared with previous results for male native speakers, revealing that the vowels of Saudi learners are shorter than those of native English speakers, and those of non-native men are longer than those of non-native women. Moreover, the low vowels produced by Saudi and native men are longer than their non-low vowels. Regarding vowel quality, men produce lower vowels than native speakers. Women, however, produce lower and more front vowels than native women. Statistically, this study reveals significant differences between male and female Saudi EFL learners in producing English vowels. Saudi men’s vowel space is more centralized than Saudi women’s space. Both men and women overlap low vowels. Saudi learners’ mispronunciations of English vowels indicate that L1 interference is not the only cause of mispronunciations.

Information technology for gender recognition by voice

Gender recognition from voice is a challenging problem in speech processing. This task involves extracting meaningful features from speech signals and classifying them into male or female categories. In this article, was implemented a gender recognition system using Python programming. I first recorded voice samples from both male and female speakers and extracted Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) as features. Then trained, a Support VectorMachine (SVM) classifier was on these features and evaluated its performance using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score metrics. These experiments demonstrated that proposed system should achieve high accuracy on the test set and will accurately predict the gender of a speaker based on their voice. I also explored using pre-trained models to reduce the need for large amounts of training data and found that they can provide good performance while requiring less computation. This study highlights the potential of using machine learning techniques for gender recognition from voice and can be extended to other speech processing applications.

Examining accent bias towards Turkish speakers of Dutch

This contribution investigates the attitudes of Flemish first language speakers towards Turkish-Flemish speakers of Dutch as a second language. We conducted a 2 x 2 x 2 speaker evaluation experiment measuring the effects of accent (native vs. Turkish), language variety (standard vs. colloquial) and name (Flemish vs. Turkish) on attitudes vis-à-vis male speakers of Belgian Dutch. Our findings provide no consistent evidence of a negative bias vis-à-vis Turkish names in Flanders. While this result could be attributed to a social desirability bias, consistent downgrading of the Turkish accent on Superiority provides an indication of the existence of an accent bias that penalises ethnic minority accents in competence-related judgements.

Uh and Um in the Native and Non-Native Speech of Guests on a Saudi English-Language Podcast

Filled pauses (FPs), uh and um, are an inherent characteristic of impromptu spoken English. However, despite the ubiquity of FP studies across languages and their impacts on speech production and comprehension, they have not been thoroughly examined in the context of second language learners of English whose mother tongue is Arabic. Hence, this study analyzed FPs in the speech of female and male non-native speakers of English and those of an American speaker who were guests on a popular English-language podcast. Combining Praat (speech analysis software), and manual coding of FPs and fillers based on previous studies, native and non-native speech was overall peppered with FPs. Although uh was more frequent than um, their frequencies among speakers and characteristic positions varied greatly. Whereas the majority comprised standalone FPs, the remaining FPs co-occurred with fillers (and, but, so, well, and you know) or were aspirated. The average length of the FPs was slightly longer for the native speaker. There were more FPs in the samples taken from early in the podcast episodes than around the middles and sometimes the endings. Regarding gender, male speakers uttered more FPs than the female speaker, whether they are native or non-native speakers.

텍스트마이닝을 통해 본 남녀 화자별 구비설화 전승 양상의 차이 - 『한국구비문학대계』와 『증편 한국구비문학대계』를 대상으로

This study examined the differences in ttransmission patterns based on the gender of speakers using folklore narratives included in the 『Comprehensive Korean Oral Literature』 and 『Complementary Edition of Comprehensive Korean Oral Literature』. To do this, visualized the transmission types for male and female speakers and compared them using the “Associative word network analysis technique by co-occurring word pairs”.&#x0D; As a result, it was confirmed that male speakers focus on “the story of origin” and female speakers focus on “the story of family”. Accordingly, we examined the difference in the transmission pattern of stories narrated by male and female speakers, focusing on “the story of origin” and “the story of family”. At this time, in the case of “family stories,” the tales involving “daughter-in-law” and “son-in-law” were categorized as the “new family” type, stories about “son,” “good son,” and “daughter” were categorized as the “parent-child” type, and narratives about “husband” were classified under the “couple” type. The differences in the transmission patterns between male and female speakers, focusing on each of these types, are as follows.&#x0D; First of all, in the case of “the story of origin,” male speakers tend to pass on “the legend associated with historicality” with interest, but female speakers tend to express “the legend of which historicality has been removed.” On the other hand, in the “family story” type of “new family member”, the female narrators pass down the stories of “daughter-in-law and son-in-law reflecting their position in the married family” with interest, but the masculine narrators prefer “the story of a man fulfilling his desire” and He seemed to enjoy narrating the story of “a folktale male character who gets lucky with his individual ability and wit”.&#x0D; Next, in the “parent-child” type, female narrators interestingly tell stories about “approaching family issues from an ethical level” centering on “duties to be observed between parents and children”, while male narrators are “emphasizing the ideological dimension” showed a tendency to enjoy them with interest. Accordingly, it was found that male narrators intensively handed down The daughter who stole the good grave of her parents, a type in which “the notion that a married daughter is not a family is inherent” in the “daughter” storytelling. He showed the appearance of narrating more stories that reveal his “subjective aspect”.&#x0D; Lastly, in the “couple” type, it was confirmed that female narrators mainly narrate the type of narration of “marital relationship at a realistic level”, but male narrators are interested in stories to “emphasize the ideology of heat and filial piety”.

Comparison of Energy Rate of a Level 3 Speech Signal using DWT with the Mother Wavelet Haar , meyer , coiflets , symlets , daubechies , biorthogonal

The objective of this work is to compare the energy rate of a level 3 speech signal using thediscrete wavelet transform (DWT) of various mother wavelets such as Haar, Meyer, biorthogonal, Coiflets,Symlets, and Daubechies, to determine the range of values for both genders of the speaker. The speechsignal is filtered by an 8th order Butterworth filter.We perform the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) on the mother wavelet to obtain the energy values ofeach mother wavelet at the third level of the decomposition for male and female speakers. We then comparethe energy values of speech signals between men and women speaking the same sentence, This comparisonis conducted on several databases containing repeated sentences for the same individual or both genders,the results are found to be acceptable for further analysis.

The Impact of Power Distance and Gender on the Choice of Disagreement Strategies in Saudi Colloquial Arabic

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential impact of power distance and gender on the choice of disagreement strategies by speakers of Saudi colloquial Arabic (henceforth “SCA”) in same- and cross-gender interactions. A Discourse Completion Test (DCT) consisting of three situations reflecting the three different combinations of power status (high-low, low-high, and equal) was used to collect the data. To have a comprehensive account of the impact of gender, four groups of participants (Male®Male, Male®Female, Female®Female and Female®Male) were included. Each group consisted of 40 participants. The collected data were compared and analyzed using Maíz-Arévalo’s (2014) taxonomy of disagreement strategies. The data analysis revealed two patterns; firstly, when there was no power distance between interlocuters or when the speaker expressing disagreement had a higher power position than the addressee, gender appeared to have an impact on the choice of disagreement strategies by the speakers of SCA. When disagreeing with the same gender, both male and female speakers of SCA tended to use strong disagreement strategies but mitigated disagreement strategies when disagreeing with the other gender; and secondly, when the speaker expressing disagreement had a lower power position than the addressee, the gender of either the speaker or the addressee did not seem to have an impact on the choice of disagreement strategies. In this pattern, power appeared to be the decisive factor which both male and female speakers of SCA tended to use in mitigated disagreement strategies regardless of the gender of the addressee.

The Dearth of Interaction about Taboo Themes between Swahili Males and Females: Is it Emanating from the Differences in Euphemisms Choice?

Swahili speakers confirm the presence of little interaction between males and females about taboo themes irrespective of the age of the interlocutors. The tendency is speculatively attributed to religion and patriarchy in society. However, a plausible cause, such as the difference in language use between males and females, had not been investigated before the current study. Consequently, the present study compared euphemism usage between Swahili male and female speakers on sex, sexual subjects, and other taboo subjects to correlate the communication tendencies and the amount of communication between the two genders. The tested null hypothesis was, “There is no significant difference in euphemism usage between male and female Swahili speakers." The t-test was based on data from 192 males and 192 females. The finding indicates that only three out of eleven taboo topics had gender-based discrepancies in the use of euphemisms among Swahili speakers. The result implies that the speech differences between males and females are not responsible for the shortfall of interaction about sensitive topics among Swahili speakers. In this regard, further correlational tests are suggested to establish the actual cause of this phenomenon which affects the welfare of society

Intrinsic vowel pitch in Hamont Dutch: Evidence for If0 reduction in the lower pitch range

This study investigated Intrinsic Vowel Pitch (If0) in the Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont. Its main aim was to investigate a potential correlation between If0 and f0, which has been attested in previous research, especially on contour tone languages. The Hamont dialect is particularly interesting because it has a pitch accent distinction, but also because the vowel system has a high and low vowel contrast in the front and the back dimension of the vowel space. The results of this study are generally compatible with If0 research on many languages but adds some new insights. Firstly, it was found that If0 in the Hamont dialect is comparatively large (1.97 semitones). Secondly, it was confirmed that the front–back distinction in vowel articulation has no significant effect on If0. Thirdly, when If0 is expressed on a semitone scale, no significant differences in If0 were found between male and female speakers of the dialect. The most important finding of the paper is the significant positive correlation between f0 and If0 in that If0 is smaller in the lower pitch range and bigger in the higher pitch range. This phenomenon in Hamont Dutch is much the same to what is observed in contour tone languages that have been examined for this. There are indications that a similar tendency exists in register tone languages and intonation languages. Although the cause of this progressive If0 reduction is not entirely clear, its wide distribution across prosodic systems seems to point towards a universal tendency.

A Cross-Cultural Differences in Advice-Giving Strategies among Jordanian and British Speakers

Advice-giving means offering guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action. The individuals vary in their methods of offering advice. Such differences might be attributed to the cultural differences. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the cross-cultural differences in advice-giving strategies among Jordanian and British speakers. It aims to examine the types of advice-giving strategies employed by Jordanian speakers and British speakers. It investigates the effect of gender, and social power and distance (=, +) on advice-giving among Jordanian speakers and British speakers. The study further seeks to identify the degree of politeness among the Jordanian speakers and British speakers in offering advice. To this end, a total of (60) participants are divided into two groups; (30) Jordanian speakers and (30) British speakers. Each group consists of (15) males and (15) females. To analyze the data, Hinkel’s (1997) taxonomy of advice-giving strategies, direct, indirect, and hedge as well as Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory are used. Hinkel multiple choice questionnaire consists of (8) situations; (4) of them pertained to advice-giving for peer, whereas (4) of them pertained to advice-giving for instructors. As for giving advice for peers, the findings reveal that Jordanian speakers used direct advice-giving strategies, while British speaker used indirect advice-giving strategies. As for advice giving for instructors, British speakers used more indirect giving strategies than Jordanian speakers, whereas Jordanian speakers used more hedge advice giving strategies than British speakers. The advice-giving strategies, whether indirect or hedge fall under politeness strategies. Regarding the gender differences in using advice-giving strategies, the results show that Jordanian male speakers were inclined towards using direct advice giving strategies more than females. The finding reveal that females used indirect, hedge, and polite advice-giving strategies, while males used direct and impolite advice-giving strategies. The study recommends investigating advice-giving among other cultures such as between Asian speakers and Jordanian speakers.

Prevalence of lectures about dental esthetics and female speakers in three Brazilian conferences.

This study analyzed the prevalence of lectures involving esthetics in the scientific program of Brazilian dental conferences and the gender distribution of speakers. All lectures presented in three dental conferences (Bahia, São Paulo, and Goiás states) held from 2016 to 2020 were evaluated. Three investigators individually divided the lectures according to the specialties recognized by the Brazilian Federal Council of Dentistry (FCD) based on their titles. The lectures were also classified as involving or not esthetics, and the speaker`s gender was recorded. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed, and Chi-square tests assessed possible associations between factors. The words most cited in the titles of the lectures were "esthetic" (13.6%), "dentistry" (9.9%), and "treatment" (8.1%). Oral diseases were barely mentioned in the titles (up to 1.3%). The highest number of lectures was observed for the specialty of Restorative Dentistry (22.3%), followed by Prosthodontics (18.5%). Approximately one-third of lectures involved some aesthetic aspect, but this percentage ranged from 71.9 to 78.6% for the two specialties with more lectures. Regarding the speaker`s gender, the inequity was higher for lectures involving esthetics (81.6% of males) than for topics unrelated to esthetics (66.7%). More male speakers than females were observed for all specialties. The highest gender gap was observed for Pediatric Dentistry with 62.4% male speakers, although only 10.6% of FCD registered specialists were men. In conclusion, the Brazilian dental conferences analyzed seemed to favor offering lectures dealing with esthetic topics and male speakers.