Comparison of vocal characteristics between Cantonese and English produced by Cantonese‐English bilingual adult speakers

Abstract

Previous studies have revealed vocal differences in speakers of different ethnic groups [e.g., Andrianopoulos et al., (2001)]. While some researchers attributed such differences to the physical variation associated with different ethnicities/races, others argued that the different languages being used contributed to the discrepant acoustic findings, especially when tonal and non‐tonal languages were used for comparison [Altenberg and Ferrand, (2006)]. As such, it seems that both ethnicity/race of speakers and the language being used may simultaneously affect vocal quality. To study how language alone affects speaking voices with the effect of race/ethnicity being excluded, examining the vocal output from bilingual speakers appears to be a feasible approach. The present study examines the vocal characteristics of Cantonese and English produced by Cantonese‐English adult speakers by using long‐term average speech (LTAS) spectra. Continuous speech samples produced in Cantonese and English were obtained from 40 (20 male and 20 female) Cantonese‐English bilingual speakers and used to generate LTAS spectra. First spectral peak, mean spectral energy, and spectral tilt derived from the LTAS spectra associated with Cantonese and English were compared. Results should reveal if the same vocal apparatus is used differently by Cantonese‐English bilingual speakers when speaking different languages.