Gay male speech
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (June 2023) |
Gay male speech has been the focus of numerous modern stereotypes, as well as
Research does not support the notion that gay speech entirely adopts feminine speech characteristics — rather, that it selectively adopts some of those features.[2] Gay speech characteristics appear to be learned (rather than innate) ways of speaking, like many aspects of language, though their origins and process of adoption by men remain unclear.[3] One particularly relevant feature is sometimes known as the gay lisp, though researchers confirm that it is not technically a lisp.
There are similarities between gay male speech and the speech of other members within the LGBTQ+ community. Features of lesbian speech have also been confirmed in the 21st century, though they are far less socially noticed than features of gay male speech. Drag queen speech is a further topic of research and, while some drag queens may also identify as gay men, a description of their speech styles may not be so binary (gay versus straight).[4] Like with other marginalized communities, speech codes can be deeply tied to local, intimate communities and/or subcultures.
North American English
Linguists have attempted to isolate exactly what makes gay men's English distinct from that of other demographics since the early 20th century, typically by contrasting it with straight male speech or comparing it to female speech.
Gay "lisp"
What is sometimes colloquially described as a gay "lisp"
Vowels
A 2006 study of gay men in the
Other characteristics
Some other speech features are also stereotyped as markers of gay or bisexual males: carefully enunciated pronunciation, wide pitch range (high and rapidly changing pitch),
Perception
In terms of perception, the "gay sound" in North American English is popularly presumed to involve the pronunciation of
Gay speech is also widely stereotyped as resembling women's speech.[24] However, on the basis of phonetics, Benjamin Munson and his colleagues' research has discovered that gay male speech does not simply or categorically imitate female speech.[25]
In one Canadian study, listeners correctly identified gay speakers in 62% of cases.
Another study
Other scholars' views
Linguist David Crystal correlated the use among men of an "effeminate" or "simpering" voice with a widened range of pitch, glissando effects between stressed syllables, greater use of fall-rise and rise-fall tones, vocal breathiness and huskiness, and occasionally more switching to the falsetto register.[30] Still, research has not confirmed any unique intonation or pitch qualities of gay speech.[24] Some such characteristics have been portrayed as mimicking women's speech and judged as derogatory toward or trivializing of women.[31]
Other languages
A study of over 300
See also
References
- JSTOR 455948.
- ^ Munson et al., 2006, p. 234.
- ^ Munson et al., 2006, p. 216.
- ^ Essing (2019). Breaking Away from the Binary. https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ejournals/index.php/satura/article/view/3063
- ^ a b Cameron, Deborah, and Don Kulick. 2003. Language and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ Travis, Lee Edward, ed. Handbook of Speech Pathology. New York: Appleton, 1957.
- ^ a b c Podesva, Robert J., Sarah J. Roberts, and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler. "Sharing Resources and Indexing Meanings in the Production of Gay Styles." Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice (2001): 175–89.
- ^ Swanson, Ana (2015). "What it means to 'sound gay'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
- ^ PMID 18954874.
- ^ a b c Bowen, Caroline (2002). "Beyond Lisping: Code Switching and Gay Speech Styles". Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
- ^ McKinstry, Oliver (March 1, 2002). "Queering Multiculturalism". The Mac Weekly. Macalester College. Archived from the original on September 22, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
- ^ Mack & Munson, 2011, p. 200.
- ^ Munson et al., 2006, p. 204
- S2CID 23557815.
- S2CID 37781084.
- ^ a b Munson, B., & Zimmerman, L.J. (2006b). Perceptual Bias and the Myth of the 'Gay Lisp'
- ^ a b Rynor, Micah (February 18, 2002). "Researchers examine patterns in gay speech". News@UofT. University of Toronto. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
- ^ Munson et al., 2006, p. 214-5.
- .
- ISBN 0-52129719-2.
- ^ Munson et al., 2006, p. 235.
- ^ Mack & Munson, 2011, p. 209-210.
- ^ Mack & Munson, 2011, abstract.
- ^ JSTOR 455948.
- .
- ^ "Gayspeak". glbtq: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, & queer culture. glbtq, inc. 2004. Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
- ^ Lakoff, Robin Tolmach. Language and Woman's Place. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
- ^ Lakoff, Robin Tolmach. Language and Woman's Place. New York: Oxford UP, 2004., additional text.
- ^ Queen, Robin M. "'I Don't Speek Spritch': Locating Lesbian Language". Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality. Ed. Anna Livia and Kira Hall. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 233–256
- ^ Crystal, David. English Tone of Voice: Essays in Intonation, Prosody and Paralanguage. London: Edward Arnold, 1975.
- S2CID 146726837.
- ^ Mack, Sara (2011). "A sociophonetic analysis of /s/ variation in Puerto Rican Spanish". 11th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.
- PMID 26132820.
Further reading
- Crocker, L., & Munson, B. (2006). Speech Characteristics of Gender-Nonconforming Boys. Oral Presentation given at the Conference on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in Language, Columbus, OH.
- Mack, S., & Munson, B. (2008). Implicit Processing, Social Stereotypes, and the 'Gay Lisp'. Oral presentation given at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Chicago, IL.
- Mack, Sara; Munson, Benjamin (2012). "The influence of /s/ quality on ratings of men's sexual orientation: Explicit and implicit measures of the 'gay lisp' stereotype". Journal of Phonetics. 40 (1): 198–212. .
- Munson, B., & Zimmerman, L.J. (2006a). The Perception of Sexual Orientation, Masculinity, and Femininity in Formant-Resynthesized Speech. Oral Presentation given at the Conference on New Ways of Analyzing Variation in Language, Columbus, OH.
- Smyth, Ron; Jacobs, Greg; Rogers, Henry (2003). "Male voices and perceived sexual orientation: An experimental and theoretical approach". Language in Society. 32 (3): 329–350. S2CID 146631251.