Speaker evaluation across the adult lifespan: Examining age and gender effects in the perception of Tyneside voices

Abstract

Research on the sociolinguistic monitor (Labov et al. 2011) suggests that evaluative reactions to voices are influenced by social and linguistic characteristics of the speakers and listeners. To date, however, we know very little about the impact of different life stages on linguistic perception. This study explores how the perception of (ing) is mediated by speaker and listener traits, particularly by age and gender. Sixteen speech samples from sociolinguistic interviews (Buchstaller 2023) conducted in the Tyneside region of the UK were manipulated acoustically for variants of (ing). Listeners (n = 72) rated speakers for status and social likeability attributes and were asked to estimate speakers’ ages. Regression analyses revealed two key findings: Evaluations are highly contingent on speaker age and gender – listeners rate male vernacular speakers in their 40s higher on professionalism and intelligence, while younger female speakers are perceived as significantly more friendly and trustworthy. Secondly, older male respondents are more critical in their evaluations, i.e., they assign lower ratings, than younger female listeners (Levon et al. 2021). Overall, this study highlights the intersectional nature of age and gender in sociolinguistic perception, offering a nuanced understanding of how age- and gender-related stereotypes affect speaker evaluation.