Female and male voices: acoustic differences, gender identification from speech and psycholinguistic implications in English and French speakers
type: Dataset
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: speech-processing
keyword: female-voices
keyword: french-speakers
keyword: theses
keyword: sccolingcognitive-sciencelinguistics
keyword: differences-inter-langues
keyword: voix-dhommes
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsdoctoralthesis
keyword: identification-du-genre-par-la-voix
keyword: acoustic-differences
keyword: gender-identification-from-speech
keyword: male-voices
keyword: shsgenrehumanities-and-social-sciencesgender-studies
keyword: locuteurs-francophones
keyword: american-english-speakers
keyword: differences-acoustiques
keyword: male-speech
keyword: shslanguehumanities-and-social-scienceslinguistics
keyword: phonetics
keyword: locuteurs-anglophones-americains
keyword: traitement-de-la-parole
keyword: female-speech
keyword: voix-de-femmes
keyword: cross-language-differences
keyword: phonetique
landing page: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00821462
description: Differences between female and male voices are linked to complex and multidisciplinary issues. The current study focuses on phonetic and psycholinguistic aspects. The first chapter is a literature review of the field. Cross-gender acoustic differences and their origin are discussed, as well as listener's gender identification from voice processing. Psycholinguistic implications are also described. All studies are presented from a critical point of view and research perspectives are proposed. The second chapter presents an acoustic analysis of dissyllabic (pseudo-)words produced by Northeastern American English speakers and Parisian French speakers. Resonant frequencies, mean F0, F0 range, VOT, H1-H2 intensity differences and words' durations were measured. Significant cross-gender differences were obtained for each tested parameter. Moreover, cross-language variations were observed for F0 range, vocalic formants and H1-H2 differences. These results suggest that cross-gender acoustic differences are partly language dependent. The same recordings were then used in gender identification from speech experiment. It was conducted jointly on Parisian French native listeners with French stimuli, and on American English listeners with English stimuli. Listeners had to identify the speaker's gender and indicate their degree of certainty. In both languages, percentages of correct identifications were significantly above chance for initial voiceless consonants, and close to 100 % with initial vowels. Considering the acoustic analysis performed on the stimuli, it was found that American English and French listeners did not use the same strategies. Thus, mean F0 and voice quality (H1-H2) had more influence on American English listeners' judgements than on French listeners', contrary to vowel formant frequencies and F0 range. The fourth and last chapter is dedicated to a word spotting experiment, conducted with French native speakers. The aim of this experiment is to test the part…
issued: 2026-05-11T04:31:20.076887
language: fr
modified: 2026-05-11T04:31:20.076892

Female and male voices: acoustic differences, gender identification from speech and psycholinguistic implications in English and French speakers
type: Distribution
access URL: https://theses.hal.science/tel-00821462
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-11T04:31:20.082181
modified: 2026-05-11T04:31:20.038499

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent