Étude des variations de fréquence fondamentale relatives au genre chez des bilingues Anglais/Français

A study of fundamental frequency in female and male English/French bilingual speakers. The present study deals with the productions of English/French bilingual speakers in a reading task and in semi-spontaneous speech. Mean fundamental frequency, F0 range and F0 standard-deviation were measured in both languages. Results show a significant effect of gender and language on all these parameters. Overall, mean F0 was higher in French while F0 modulation was stronger in English. Regardless of language, female speakers exhibited higher F0 than males. Moreover, the increase of mean F0 in French was larger in female speakers. On the other hand, the decrease of F0 modulation in French was stronger for male speakers. These data support the idea of languageand gender-specific vocal codes, to which bilingual speakers seem to adapt. MOTS-CLES : fréquence fondamentale, intonation, bilinguisme, voix et genre, variations interlangues.