A comparison of vocal parameters in adult bilingual Hebrew-English speakers

Bibliometric Analysis and Review of Literature on the Relationship Between Voice Production and Bilingualism

BACKGROUND

The spoken language may influence the way we produce our voice. Therefore, speak more than one language could affect voice production. However, there is limited evidence on the relationship between voice production and bilingualism.

AIM

To characterize the relationship between bilingualism and voice production determined by means of voice acoustic parameters and voice perception.

METHODS

A review of literature was performed using four computerized databases. The keywords used were voice, bilingualism, and multilingualism. Relevant data were extracted from the publications on country and year of study, participants, sample size, characterization of voice production (acoustics, perceptual), and languages. A bibliometric analysis was performed for co-occurrence analysis. Quality assessment was conducted with the EPHPP tool.

RESULTS

A total of 10 publications met our inclusion criteria. Nine of the articles compared English productions with another language. Included studies reported changes in fundamental frequency between English and Spanish, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin, Russian, Finnish, Arabic, Korean, Welsh, and Hebrew. The co-occurrence analysis shows that fundamental frequency is the most reported parameter, and English is the most compared language among studies including bilingual speakers.

CONCLUSION

Speaking a second language influences voice production determined by voice acoustic parameters, such as fundamental frequency. Therefore, language may be an important factor to take into consideration when planning assessment and intervention programs on the field of voice.

Effects of Cognitive Load on Vocal Fold Vibratory Patterns in Bilingual Speakers of Low and High German

OBJECTIVES

Increased cognitive load has been observed to correlate with decreased vocal fold perturbation, reduced additive noise, increased periodicity, and a higher rate of vocal fold vibration. The aim of this study was to explore whether vocal fold vibratory patterns can serve as indicators of increased cognitive load in nonbalanced bilingual speakers when they use their weaker language.

STUDY DESIGN

This is a comparative experimental study with a within-speaker design.

METHODS

We recorded a total of 95 bilingual speakers of Low German (LG), which is an endangered language spoken in Northern Germany, and Standard High German (HG). Participants completed four tasks in both languages: engaging in free narration, describing a picture story, giving directions, and reading a narrative passage. For the last three tasks, the difficulty levels were varied. Measurements included jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), cepstral peak prominence (CPP), the proportion of creak, pitch level, and pitch span. Changes in voice characteristics were examined both in terms of the participants' age and their language dominance. For the latter, we calculated a dominance score derived from age of acquisition, frequency of use, and self-perceived linguistic competence in the two languages.

RESULTS

Younger speakers showed a higher dominance of HG over LG, which decreased with age. Younger and more HG-dominant speakers exhibited lower jitter and shimmer, along with a higher HNR and a lower creak proportion in LG compared to HG. CPP and pitch level were higher in LG but showed little variation with age or language dominance. No clear effects on pitch span were observed. Overall, age was a slightly more reliable predictor than language dominance. Acoustic differences in voice quality were about equally detectable across the different speech tasks while varying difficulty levels had minimal impact.

CONCLUSIONS

The variation in vocal fold vibratory patterns suggests that younger and more HG-dominant speakers experienced greater cognitive load when speaking LG. Given that increased cognitive load may negatively impact language usage, voice analysis opens up new possibilities for evaluating the future prospects of endangered languages.

Association Between Bilingualism, Vocal Effort, and Background Noise With Voice Fundamental Frequency and LTAS Among Spanish-English Bilingual Teachers

BACKGROUND

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the demand for bilingual teachers has grown exponentially. However, the unique combination of being a bilingual occupational voice user establishes challenges that warrant careful examination.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the association between bilingualism, vocal effort, and background noise with fundamental frequency and long-term spectrum average among Spanish-English bilingual teachers.

METHODS

Exploratory cross-sectional correlational study with the participation of eight Spanish-English proficient bilingual teachers (native Spanish speakers) who were teaching online classes during the quarantines established to mitigate the propagation of COVID-19. Participants were asked to read two standardized texts (one in English and one in Spanish) under two background noise conditions (with and without background white noise).

RESULTS

There was a significant interaction between language and vocal effort considering that the association of vocal effort with fo was different for Spanish and English. There was also a significant main effect of background noise on fo. There were significant differences in voice spectral characteristics between productions in Spanish and English and between productions with and without background noise. The alpha ratio was significantly higher in productions in English and with background noise compared with productions in Spanish without background noise. The mid to high spectral energy ratio (1-5 K/5-8 K) was significantly lower in productions in English and with higher perceived vocal effort compared with productions in Spanish and with lower scores on the Borg Scale.

CONCLUSION

Our findings introduce a need perspective by emphasizing the impact of speaking a second language on the work-relatedness of voice disorders among teachers. These findings stress the necessity to factor in language and environmental conditions for the comprehensive evaluation and management of work-related voice disorders.

Mapping of the characteristics in the CoDAS journal publications in the voice area: a scoping review

PURPOSE

To map and describe the characteristics present in the publications of the CoDAS journal in the voice segment.

RESEARCH STRATEGIES

The research was carried on the Scielo database using the descriptor voice.

SELECTION CRITERIA

CoDAS publications in the field of voice.

DATA ANALYSIS

Specific data collected according to delineation, summarized by descriptive analysis and analyzed in narrative format.

RESULTS

Studies published in 2019 and with cross-sectional delineation were more frequent. The most frequent result in the cross-sectional studies was the vocal self-assessment. Most intervention studies were of immediate single-session-only effect. The most frequent procedures in the validation studies were translation and transcultural adaptation.

CONCLUSION

There was a gradual increase in the number of publications of voice studies, though these had heterogeneous characteristics.

Self-perceived and Acoustic Voice Characteristics of Russian-English Bilinguals

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the vocal characteristics of bilingual individuals speaking in their native language as compared with the English language.

METHODS

The participants consisted of 30 vocally healthy adults, 14 adult male and 16 adult female bilingual subjects, with ages ranging from 23 to 70 years old. The procedures included a demographic questionnaire, a self-perceptual questionnaire, and descriptions of two video clips. The self-assessment included 21 questions that investigated how participants perceived their communication characteristics in each language. For the description of the videos, participants randomly watched two video clips with no audio support. One of the videos was described in English and the other in their native language. Voice samples were recorded to allow for acoustic analysis of selected vocal parameters: pitch, intensity, intonation, and rate of speech.

RESULTS

The results indicate that overall, there is no difference in how the individuals perceive their communication characteristics in both languages (all P values > 0.05). The only significant difference was found in speech rate and sentence duration. Individuals had faster speech rate and longer sentences when speaking in English than in Russian. The correlation analysis showed that the younger the participants were when they immigrated to the USA, the more interjections they reported having in their native language.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that language is a contributing factor to varying speech characteristics of Russian-English bilingual individuals. These findings have important implications for clinicians to be aware of cultural-linguistic influence in vocal and speech features.