Sex differences in pitch, periodicity, and vowel formants in French

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines acoustic differences between male and female speakers of French across multiple phonetic dimensions, including fundamental frequency (F0), F0 variability, harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), and vowel formant frequencies.
Thirty-three native speakers of French, 16 male and 17 female speakers, read French sentences. F0, F0 variability, and HNR were measured across all vowel intervals to capture speech-level pitch characteristics and vocal periodicity, while F1 and F2 were analyzed for the corner vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ to examine vowel space patterns. The results showed significant sex differences across acoustic measures.
Female speakers exhibited higher F0, greater F0 variability, and higher HNR than male speakers, indicating higher pitch, greater F0 modulation, and greater vocal periodicity. Formant frequencies also differed by speaker sex, but these differences were vowel-dependent. Female speakers had significantly higher F1 and F2 values than male speakers for /a/ and /i/, whereas no significant sex difference was found for /u/ in either F1 or F2. These findings suggest that sex-dependent acoustic differences in French are multidimensional and cannot be explained solely by physiological differences between sexes. The results are discussed in light of physiological constraints, vowel-specific acoustic and articulatory properties, and potentially sociophonetic factors.