Gender-Related Phonetic Variation of Vowels in Prishtina

This study investigates how gender, as a sociolinguistic factor, affects the phonetic variation of low and mid vowels in the Albanian language. 156 Prishtina citizens (78 women and 78 men, mean age: 39) took part in an interview in which they answered questions about their daily and professional lives. They used vernacular style in their answers, which revealed information regarding the density of vowel usage in their native dialect. These vowels were numbered in each informant’s discourse and measured based on their gender. They were classified as “prestigious” or “inferior”, depending on their relation to the standard variety. Results proved that men use more locally colored and nasalized variants, which shows that they are less sensitive to potential negative social perceptions. On the other hand, women preferred to stay away from stigmatized speech, particularly when it came to low vowels. Furthermore, women played a leading role in creating innovative variants.