Voice quality variation in Scottish adolescents: Gender versus geography

Given the importance of voice quality in signalling personal identity and social group membership, effective control of voice features may become especially important during adolescence, yet this has to be achieved in the context of significant physical changes within the speech production system. Most previous research has focussed on phonation, but this study used Vocal Profile Analysis (VPA) [11] for perceptual analysis of both laryngeal and vocal tract voice settings in Scottish adolescents, in order to identify voice quality markers of gender and geographical background in this age group. VPA analysis was carried out for 76 speakers (31 male; 45 female), drawn from three geographically distinct areas of Scotland. Some of the observed variation in voice quality (especially phonatory settings) may be attributable to physical changes associated with puberty, but other setting adjustments seem more likely to be sociophonetic in origin.