Effects of perceived age on perceived dialect strength:

This study tested whether estimated speaker age influences estimated dialect strength. Twenty young listeners judged unscripted monologues in terms of speaker age and dialect strength. The speech samples were produced by 3 elderly men, 3 elderly women, 3 young men and 3 young women, all native speakers of the Arjeplog dialect. In addition to the original speech samples, manipulated versions were created in which speaking rate and fundamental frequency (F0) had been changed in order to simulate age differences. These manipulations 1) increased estimated speaker age by approximately 10 years and 2) increased the estimated dialect strength of these speakers. Thus, estimated speaker age and estimated dialect strength were found to be dependent variables. This suggests that listener responses must be corrected for age effects in experiments involving judgments of dialect strength.