A comparison of vocal parameters in adult bilingual Hebrew-English speakers

• Main Authors: Leah Nevo, Chaya Nevo, Gisele Oliveira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia
• Series: CoDAS
• Subjects: Voice; Multilingualism; Language; Speech; Speech Acoustics; Speech Perception
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2317-17822015000500483&lng=en&tlng=en

ABSTRACT Purpose: There has been growing research on the effects of language on voice characteristics; however, few studies have examined the impact of language on vocal features within bilinguals. This study aimed to compare vocal parameters among bilingual Hebrew/English speaking individuals when speaking in Hebrew versus English. Methods: Forty bilingual participants (17 males and 23 females) between the ages of 23-60 years were asked to spontaneously speak about a neutral topic. Voice samples were digitalized into a tablet for perceptual and acoustic analyses of selected parameters. Results: Results show that there are changes in resonance, glottal attack, fundamental frequency variation and speech rate when adult bilingual speakers talk in Hebrew as compared to English. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that language plays a role in affecting vocal characteristics of bilingual individuals when they speak different languages.