The development of gendered speech in children: Insights from adult L1 and L2 perceptions

Past studies have shown that boys and girls sound distinct by 4 years old, long before sexual dimorphisms in vocal anatomy develop. These gender differences are thought to be learned within a particular speech community. However, no study has asked whether listeners' sensitivity to gender in child speech is modulated by language experience. This study shows that gendered speech emerges at 2.5 years old, and that L1 listeners outperform L2 listeners in detecting these differences. The findings highlight the role of language-specific sociolinguistic factors in both speech perception and production, and show that gendered speech emerges earlier than previously suggested.