The Effect of Bilingualism on Production and Perception of Vocal Fry.
Lady Catherine Cantor-Cutiva, Pasquale Bottalico, Jossemia Webster and 2 others
PMID 34301440WHAT IT FOUND
Bilingual speakers produced vocal fry more often in English than Spanish.
Bilingual listeners identified hoarseness and roughness more frequently than monolingual listeners, suggesting language knowledge alters voice perception, though the small sample limits generalization.
Key findings
01Native English speakers produced vocal fry more often in both languages compared to native Spanish speakers, and all speakers produced it more often in English than Spanish.
02Bilingual listeners identified hoarseness, roughness, and vocal fry (in English) more often than monolingual listeners.
03Being a bilingual listener accounted for approximately 50% of the variance in perceptual ratings of voice quality.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had a very small sample of listeners (six), limiting generalizability. The cross-sectional design cannot prove causality between language knowledge and perception. Speaker proficiency and native language were based on self-report rather than objective tests. The use of read texts rather than conversation may not reflect natural vocal fry use. The automatic detection method did not identify where in the utterance vocal fry occurred.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The research was supported by the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that higher ratings of hoarseness or roughness by bilingual listeners indicate a more severe voice disorder. The study shows bilingual listeners perceive these qualities differently, but it does not prove their ratings are more accurate or that the voice is objectively worse.