Abstract
While numerous studies have demonstrated that a male speaker's sexual orientation can be identified from relatively long passages of speech, few studies have evaluated whether listeners can determine sexual orientation when presented with word-length stimuli. If listeners are able to distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers of American English, it is unclear whether they form their judgments based on a phoneme, such as a vowel or consonant, or multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and a consonant. In this study, we first found that listeners can distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual speakers of American English upon hearing word-length stimuli. We extended these results in a separate experiment to demonstrate that listeners primarily rely on vowels, and to some extent consonants, when forming their judgments. Listeners were able to differentiate between the two groups of speakers for each of the vowels and three of the seven consonants presented. In a follow-up experiment we found evidence that listeners' judgments improved if they were presented with multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and /s/. These results provide important information about how different phonemes can provide discriminant information about a male speaker's sexual orientation.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 13-25 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Phonetics |
| Volume | 52 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 1 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Keywords
- Gay and heterosexual male speech
- Indexical characteristics
- Sexual orientation
- Sociophonetics
- Vowels and consonants
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Speech and Hearing
Cite this
Judgments of self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers : Which phonemes are most salient in determining sexual orientation? / Tracy, Erik C.; Bainter, Sierra; Satariano, Nicholas P.
In: Journal of Phonetics, Vol. 52, 01.09.2015, p. 13-25.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Judgments of self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers
T2 - Which phonemes are most salient in determining sexual orientation?
AU - Tracy, Erik C.
AU - Bainter, Sierra
AU - Satariano, Nicholas P.
PY - 2015/9/1
Y1 - 2015/9/1
N2 - While numerous studies have demonstrated that a male speaker's sexual orientation can be identified from relatively long passages of speech, few studies have evaluated whether listeners can determine sexual orientation when presented with word-length stimuli. If listeners are able to distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers of American English, it is unclear whether they form their judgments based on a phoneme, such as a vowel or consonant, or multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and a consonant. In this study, we first found that listeners can distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual speakers of American English upon hearing word-length stimuli. We extended these results in a separate experiment to demonstrate that listeners primarily rely on vowels, and to some extent consonants, when forming their judgments. Listeners were able to differentiate between the two groups of speakers for each of the vowels and three of the seven consonants presented. In a follow-up experiment we found evidence that listeners' judgments improved if they were presented with multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and /s/. These results provide important information about how different phonemes can provide discriminant information about a male speaker's sexual orientation.
AB - While numerous studies have demonstrated that a male speaker's sexual orientation can be identified from relatively long passages of speech, few studies have evaluated whether listeners can determine sexual orientation when presented with word-length stimuli. If listeners are able to distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual male speakers of American English, it is unclear whether they form their judgments based on a phoneme, such as a vowel or consonant, or multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and a consonant. In this study, we first found that listeners can distinguish between self-identified gay and heterosexual speakers of American English upon hearing word-length stimuli. We extended these results in a separate experiment to demonstrate that listeners primarily rely on vowels, and to some extent consonants, when forming their judgments. Listeners were able to differentiate between the two groups of speakers for each of the vowels and three of the seven consonants presented. In a follow-up experiment we found evidence that listeners' judgments improved if they were presented with multiple phonemes, such as a vowel and /s/. These results provide important information about how different phonemes can provide discriminant information about a male speaker's sexual orientation.
KW - Gay and heterosexual male speech
KW - Indexical characteristics
KW - Sexual orientation
KW - Sociophonetics
KW - Vowels and consonants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928676694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84928676694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wocn.2015.04.001
DO - 10.1016/j.wocn.2015.04.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84928676694
VL - 52
SP - 13
EP - 25
JO - Journal of Phonetics
JF - Journal of Phonetics
SN - 0095-4470
ER -