Bright Voice Quality and Fundamental Frequency Variation in Non-binary Speakers

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Sociophonetics
• Gender Studies

Background:

• Vocal characteristics are often associated with gender, leading to assumptions and potential misgendering.
• Non-binary individuals may alter their vocalizations to align with their gender identity or to mitigate misgendering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively compare vocal variations in assigned-female-at-birth (AFAB) non-binary individuals with cisgender participants.
• To determine if subjective perceptions of bright voice quality in AFAB non-binary individuals are measurable and differ from cisgender individuals.

Main Methods:

• Employed a quantitative comparative research design.
• Conducted phonetic and statistical analyses on continuous speech samples from AFAB non-binary and cisgender participants.
• Measured mean fundamental frequency (F0), cepstral peak prominence-smoothed, and spectral slope as vocal cues, with speaker gender as the predictor.

Main Results:

• AFAB non-binary participants demonstrated intermediate mean F0 values, significantly lower than cisgender women and higher than cisgender men.
• Non-binary participants exhibited a brighter voice quality, indicated by less negative spectral slope and higher cepstral peak prominence-smoothed.
• Individual analyses suggested that vocal training and physiology did not fully explain these observed vocal differences.

Conclusions:

• Participant agency, particularly the motivation to avoid misgendering, influences F0 production and voice quality in AFAB non-binary individuals.
• A unique combination of intermediate F0 and bright voice quality was observed in the majority of AFAB non-binary participants.