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.
Keywords:
Voice; Multilingualism; Language; Speech; Speech Acoustics; Speech Perception
