Using Twang and Medialization Techniques to Gain Feminine-Sounding Speech in Trans Women

In this study, we introduce an intervention based on two techniques: twang and medialization. The hypothesis is that a combination of these two techniques will enable trans women to gain feminine-sounding speech without vocal strain or harm.

Five trans women took part in the study. A control group of five cisgender women and five cisgender men were included. A list of 14 monosyllabic words was created, where the vowel /ɑ/ was embedded in various consonant contexts. All participants were asked to read the word list three times, each time presented in a different order. The trans women read the word list before and after intervention. Acoustic analyses of fundamental frequency and the first, second, and third formant frequencies were conducted. For the perceptual analysis, 60 voice samples were selected from the entire material. Fifteen listeners were asked whether they perceived the voice samples as feminine, masculine, or uncertain. The listeners were also asked for gender judgments based on sentences read by the trans women after intervention.

The acoustic analyses revealed an increase in fundamental frequencies and first, second, and third formants after intervention for all five trans women, approaching the values of the female controls. The perceptual judgments showed that the majority of the trans women voice samples were perceived as feminine after intervention.

Based on the acoustic analyses and the perceptual evaluations, the conclusion seems to show that the combination of the techniques twang and medialization enable the trans women to obtain feminine attribution. Nevertheless, the study is too small for generalizations. However, a take-home message is that it is appropriate to focus primarily on resonance, in addition to speaking fundamental frequency, to gain feminine-sounding speech.