Age and Gender Differences in Belgian Dutch Intonation

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Acoustic Phonetics
• Speech Science

Background:

• Intonation plays a crucial role in conveying meaning and emotion in spoken language.
• Understanding normative intonation patterns across demographics is essential for clinical applications.
• Previous research has indicated potential differences in intonation based on gender and age, but specific data for Flemish-speaking populations were lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of age and gender on intonation patterns in Flemish-speaking adults.
• To establish normative data for key intonation parameters in cis women and cis men across different age groups.
• To provide a basis for speech therapy goal setting related to intonation.

Main Methods:

• A total of 207 participants (105 cis women, 102 cis men) were equally distributed across five age groups.
• Semi-structured speech samples were collected using a standardized prosody protocol.
• Objective acoustic analysis quantified four intonation parameters: general intonation shift, general fundamental frequency range, final intonation shift, and fundamental frequency variation index.

Main Results:

• Cis women demonstrated a higher frequency of general upward and downward intonation shifts compared to cis men.
• Cis men exhibited more instances of flat intonation shifts.
• Significant age-related differences were observed, with younger age groups generally showing smaller mean values for continuous intonation parameters, particularly in the 46-55 age bracket.

Conclusions:

• Flemish-speaking cis women employ a more expressive intonation style than cis men.
• Older adults tend to display more expressive intonation compared to younger adults in specific sentence contexts.
• The developed prosody protocol and normative data offer valuable tools for speech-language pathologists in setting therapeutic objectives.