Sexual Identity, Gender-Nonconformity, and Acoustic Speech Characteristics of Gay and Straight Australian English-Speaking Men

Abstract

Gender-nonconforming acoustic speech features, such as fundamental frequency, spectral moments of the fricative /s/, and vowel formants produced at higher frequencies, relative to straight men, have been examined as markers of gay identities in multiple varieties of English. Production of these features is not observed consistently, as some gay men exhibit some gender-nonconforming features without producing globally gender-nonconforming speech. Variation in speech features is further increased by accent differences and linguistic diversity in the gay community. This study investigated acoustic characteristics of gay speech in Australian English (AusE), a variety with limited experimental research on gay speech. Acoustic characteristics of fundamental frequency, /s/, and vowel production were compared between 35 gay and 25 straight AusE-speaking men. Speech variation among gay men was examined in relation to gender-nonconformity, masculinity, self-identified straight-acting behavior, outness, and internalized homophobia. AusE-speaking gay men produced fundamental frequency with gender-nonconforming larger variation and /s/ with gender-nonconforming higher center of gravity than straight men. Vowel production with gender-nonconforming, higher formants indexed both gay identity and gay men who identified as less masculine and less straight-acting.