Uncovering identity in lesbian voices: an analysis of variation in vowels and creak

Abstract

This study provides evidence of intra-community variation among lesbian speakers related to individual differences in gender presentation and workspace environment. An analysis is performed on two cues of queer identity- creaky voice and vowel formants – and their variation within lesbian speech across three factors - gender presentation, queer community familiarity, and workspace type.  Overall, vowel space expansion and total creak were found to correlate with a more masculine gender presentation; and different creak phrasal patterns were found to correlate with different workspace types.  This variation demonstrates the need for a more nuanced investigation of indexing LGBTQ+ identities through speech.