Dec 15
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Heffernan:2004
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Is there a possibility to manipulate the experiment in a way that
allows the elimination, or at least mitigation of the possible effects
of the size difference between Japanese and Europeans?

Can the higher frequencies in Japanese males compared to male English
speakers be interpreted as the Japanese voice generally being
perceived as more feminine?

The paper mentions previous works that have found acoustic differences
across gender according to sexual orientation. That sounds a little
hasty to me. What sexual orientations are being considered here? Is
the speech of a bissexual male different from a homossexual male, for
instance? Are there even similar results for lesbian/queer women as
well?

Could the observed lack of breathiness in the voices of
Spanish-speaking women be influenced by a combination of the
language's articulatory characteristics and societal constructs of
attractiveness? Given that Spanish-speaking women often exhibit
lower-pitched voices with raspy and guttural qualities, could these
linguistic features, together with cultural norms, have contributed to
the non-significant results in the study comparing breathiness across
two cultures that are more similar to each other (English and Dutch)
than to Spanish? Are there other studies exploring this interplay
between phonetic cues and cultural perceptions in gender marking
across different cultures?

What is the difference between the 255 Hz low-pass filter and the 255
Hz high-pass filter?

It is very interesting that people can determine the gender of a
person who is whispering quite accurately as there is no fundamental
frequency for whispered speech. Is it then the shape of our vocal
tract that makes a difference in sound quality?

I also find it interesting that the VOT is longer in women, as they
tend to articulate speech more carefully. Why is that?

And I think it is noteworthy that we are able to acquire gender
atypical sounds.

It would be interesting to use these recordings in a perception
experiment and analyze to what extent it is possible to accurately
recognize the gender based on isolated fricatives.

The paper was published almost 20 years ago and the last section
contained several questions for future experiments, such as whether
there is also another class of phonetic cues to gender that are
governed by anatomical make-up alone. Are there any new findings that
could answer these questions?