Phonetic convergence and talker sex: It’s complicated

Investigations of phonetic convergence report conflicting results with respect to talker sex. Some studies report that females converge to a greater degree than males, while others find no difference or the opposite pattern. These discrepancies frustrate attempts to characterize the impact of talker sex on phonetic variation and convergence in a straightforward manor. The current investigation reveals that talker sex interacts with other variables, both lexical and phonological. A set of 92 talkers (47 females) shadowed monosyllabic words that manipulated word frequency within eight vowels. Phonetic convergence was assessed in an AXB perceptual similarity task and in F1 x F2 vowel space. Convergence in F1 x F2 vowel space did not differ between males and females on average, but female talkers converged to front vowels (/i/, /ɛi/, /ɛ/, /ae/) more than to back vowels (/ɑ/, /ou/, /ʊ/, /u/), and male talkers showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, higher vowels (/i/, /ɛi/, /ʊ/, and /u/) showed the largest di...