Crosslinguistic perceptions of /s/ among English, French, and German listeners

Language Variation and Change

Abstract

This study reports the results of a crosslinguistic matched guise test examining /s/ and pitch variation in judgments of sexual orientation and nonnormative masculinity among English, French, and German listeners. Listeners responded to /s/ and pitch manipulations in native and other language stimuli (English, French, German, and Estonian). All listener groups rate higher pitch guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than lower pitch guises. However, only English listeners hear [s+] guises as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than [s] or [s−] guises for all stimuli languages. French and German listeners do not hear [s+] guises as more gay- or effeminate-sounding in any stimulus language, despite this feature’s presence in native speech production. English listener results show evidence of indexical transfer, when indexical knowledge is applied to the perception of unknown languages. French and German listener results show how the enregistered status of /s/ variation affects perception, despite crosslinguistic similarities in production.

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@article{boyd2021,
  author = {Boyd, Zac and Fruehwald, Josef and Hall-Lew, Lauren},
  title = {Crosslinguistic Perceptions of /s/ Among {English,} {French,}
    and {German} Listeners},
  journal = {Language Variation and Change},
  volume = {33},
  number = {2},
  pages = {165-191},
  date = {2021-07},
  url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0954394521000089/type/journal_article},
  doi = {10.1017/S0954394521000089},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {This study reports the results of a crosslinguistic
    matched guise test examining /s/ and pitch variation in judgments of
    sexual orientation and nonnormative masculinity among English,
    French, and German listeners. Listeners responded to /s/ and pitch
    manipulations in native and other language stimuli (English, French,
    German, and Estonian). All listener groups rate higher pitch guises
    as more gay- and effeminate-sounding than lower pitch guises.
    However, only English listeners hear {[}s+{]} guises as more gay-
    and effeminate-sounding than {[}s{]} or {[}s−{]} guises for all
    stimuli languages. French and German listeners do not hear {[}s+{]}
    guises as more gay- or effeminate-sounding in any stimulus language,
    despite this feature’s presence in native speech production. English
    listener results show evidence of indexical transfer, when indexical
    knowledge is applied to the perception of unknown languages. French
    and German listener results show how the enregistered status of /s/
    variation affects perception, despite crosslinguistic similarities
    in production.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Boyd, Zac, Josef Fruehwald, and Lauren Hall-Lew. 2021. “Crosslinguistic Perceptions of /s/ Among English, French, and German Listeners.” Language Variation and Change 33 (2): 165–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394521000089.