The vocal tract The Vocal Folds The physics of speech • Fundamental frequency - frequency of vibration of vocal cords • Harmonics - higher frequencies whose wavelengths divide evenly into the fundamental frequency • Resonance - the tendency of a system to absorb more energy when the frequency of the oscillations matches the system’s natural frequency of vibration (e.g. notice how certain notes resonate when you’re singing in the shower) Wickipedia is pretty easy to understand in this area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_%28music%29 For all kinds of information on phonetics resources see: http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist1/Syll/1.2 The Consonants of English The Vowels of English http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/# The social salience of voice ‘I don’t care how many women you make love to in this room,’ she lashed, scarcely recognizing the high pitched voice as her own. ‘Don’t expect me to apologise for it.’ His resonant voice had gone slightly hard. ‘I hate you!’ There was an unmistakable tremor in her voice. ‘Kate.’ His voice was incredibly low and deep, his eyes dark and sensuous. He had never spoken her name before and the speaking of it made her aware of the deep, slightly grating timbre of his voice. … “Lyle”, she croaked, and was unaware that her voice came out as a wordless whisper. He gave his gravelly laugh. Lines from Mills and Boon romances, quoted in Graddol, D. and J. Swann (1989). Gender voices. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, p. 12. Comparing m/f voice pitch Average pitch erases the full pitch range Graddol, D. and J. Swann (1989). Gender voices. Oxford, Basil Blackwell. pp. 2021. • http://www.translife.net/voice.htm Japanese experiment on pitch and gender ideology • Recordings of women saying a variety of greetings. • Recordings altered to provide the same voice saying the same thing at three pitches. • In higher pitched guises, speakers were judged as more cute, kind and polite. • In lower pitched guises, speakers were judged as more stubborn, selfish and strong. Y. Ohara (1997) Cited on pp.462-3 in Ide, S. and M. Yoshida (1999). Sociolinguistics: Honorifics and gender differences. Handbook of Japanese linguistics. N. Tsujimura. Cambridge, Blackwell: 444-80. Pitch range In experiments … • Wider pitch range interpreted as interested, excited, puzzled, pleased, confident, angry, worried, irritated. • Narrower pitch range interpreted as uninterested and bored. David Crystal. 1969. Prosodic systems and intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Wider pitch range seen as positive politeness strategy, narrower pitch as negative politeness strategy. • In Japanese, pitch range should correlate with non-use/use of honorifics. BROWN, PENELOPE and LEVINSON, STEPHEN. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pitch range of Japanese speakers with familiar and unfamiliar interlocutors Ikuko Yuasa. 1998. Politeness strategies observed in pitch ranges employed by Japanese men and women. Crossroads of language, interaction and culture. 1. 27-42. Intonation Rising intonation, otherwise known as uptalk… the end of the civilized world as we know it. • Uptalk is invading the work place and is reaching epidemic proportions. … It sounds like the speaker is asking a question instead of making a declaration.Once the exclusive domain of teens, it is now a regular part of the adult world. …It can be heard even at management levels and it’s destroying their credibility. Uptalk renders the speaker weak, tentative, lacking conviction and authority. How can a person influence, lead, or command respect if they canﾕt take a stand and sound like they mean it? • I’ve even heard it at networking meetings. It sounds like this: “Good morning. My name is Jane Doe?” Well is that your name or isn’t it? It takes seven seconds or less to make a first impression. Would you do business with someone who isn’t sure of his/her own name? http://ezinearticles.com/?Does-Uptalk-Make-you-Upchuck?&id=959 From Arnold Zwicky on Language Log http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Em yl/languagelog/archives/002407.html two seductive effects of selective attention: • the Recency Illusion (if you've noticed something only recently, you believe that it in fact originated recently) • the Frequency Illusion (once you notice a phenomenon, you believe that it happens a whole lot) • Add to that the Out-group Illusion. people sometimes are exquisitely sensitive to some linguistic feature in groups they don't belong to, while missing it almost totally within their group • In conversations between equals, both participants used rising tone equally. • In business meetings, chairs used rising tones 329 times, other participants 112 times. • In conversations between academic supervisors and supervisees, supervisors used rising tones 765 times, supervisees 117 times Winnie Cheng and Martin Warren. 2005. ↗ CAN i help you //: The use of rise and rise-fall tones in the Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English". International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 10(1). Rising intonation is weak? • http://ldc.upenn.edu/myl/llog/BushPhillyX3.wav From Mark Liberman’s languagelog: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/002708.html Off the deep end … The role of voice pitch in discourses of sexuality Pitch • Perceived pitch can be affected by the length, tension and mass of the vocal folds, and the size of the resonating cavities. • These are not directly related to body size. Voice and menstruation “…from 26th day of the cycle until the first day of menstruation (day one of the next menstrual cycle), the levels of female sexual hormones decrease. These specific changes in the hormonal levels during premenstrual and menstrual periods of the cycle can lead to fluid retention in the body. Therefore a swelling of the vocal folds may occur, interfering with phonation since changes in the thickness of the vocal folds interfere with its vibration.” http://www.shef.ac.uk/janedavidson/menstrualcycle.html Pre-Menstrual Vocal Syndrome (PMVS) The larynx is an estrogen target; it is sensitive to hormonal changes Cervix and vocal fold tissue behave similarly in smear tests European opera houses have given women a week off preceding their menstrual periods (Karen Wicklund p.c.) http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/journey/pmvs.html Voice and sex …changes in voice quality are claimed to occur when people become sexually aroused - a change in mucosal lubrication gives rise to a breathiness or huskiness of tone. In fact, there exists a tradition that too much sex will affect your voice. Singers, in particular, are often advised to avoid sexual activity unless their voices are already low. …advice of a famous Italian voice coach: ‘tenors and sopranos never during a performance run, baritones once or twice a week, and low voices every night.’ (from interview with Bettina Jonic Guardian March 31, 1984.) Graddol, D. and J. Swann (1989). Gender voices. Oxford, Basil Blackwell. P. 18 The famous sexologist says … Among prostitutes … the evolution of the voice and of the larynx tends to take a masculine direction. This fact, which is fairly obvious, has been accurately investigated at Genoa by Professor Masini, who finds that among 50 prostitutes 29 showed in a high degree the deep masculine voice … only six of the 50 showed a normal larynx; while of 20 presumably honest women only 2 showed the ample masculine larynx. Ellis, Havelock. 198, p. 237. Man and woman. London: Walter Scott. Cited in Graddol, D. and J. Swann (1989). Gender voices. Oxford, Basil Blackwell. P. 37 Gender is not the only discourse linking voice pitch with power The Wolof of Senegal (Irvine, J. (2001). Style” as distinctiveness: The culture and ideology of linguistic differentiation. Stylistic variation in language. P. Eckert and J. Rickford. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 21-43.) Griots - “affective and excitable” Nobles “stable, lethargic, bland” Even the Roman Architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (1st C BC) had some things to say about the voices of different peoples in: de Architectura, Book VI (3) …where the sun acts with moderate heat, it keeps the body at a temperate warmth, where it is hot from the proximity of the sun, all moisture is dried up: lastly, in cold countries which are distant from the south, the moisture is not drawn out by the heat, but the dewy air, insinuating its dampness into the system, increases the size of the body, and makes the voice more grave. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/6*.html Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (4) Those who live near the equator, and are exactly under the sun's course, are, owing to its power, low in stature, of dark complexion, with curling hair, black eyes, weak legs, deficient in quantity of blood. And this deficiency of blood makes them timid when opposed in battle, but they bear excessive heat and fevers without fear, because their limbs are nourished by heat. Those, however, born in northern countries are timid and weak when attacked by fever, but from their sanguineous habit of body more courageous in battle. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (5) The pitch of the voice is various, and of different qualities in different nations. For the eastern and western boundaries round the level of the earth, where the upper is divided from the under part of the world, and the earth appears to be balanced by nature, are designated by a circle which mathematicians call the horizon; keeping this circumstance in mind, from the edge on the northern extremity, let a line be drawn to that above the southern axis, and therefrom another in an oblique direction up to the pole near the northern stars, and we shall immediately perceive the principle of the triangular instrument called by the Greeks σαµβύκη. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (6) Thus the people who live in the region near the lower point, that is in the southern part towards the equator, from the small elevation of the pole have shrill and high toned voices similar to those on the instrument near the angle; next come those whose tone of voice is of lower pitch, such as the people in the central parts of Greece. Thus, proceeding by degrees from the middle to the northern extremity, the voice of the inhabitants gradually becomes of lower pitch. Herein we may perceive how the system of the world is harmonically arranged, by the obliquity of the zodiac from the appropriate temperature of the sun. Hence those who are in the middle, between the equator and the pole, are gifted with a middle pitch of voice, similar to the tones in the central part of the musical diagram.