Exploratory study in ethnophonetics: Comparison of cross-cultural perceptions of Japanese cake seller voices among Japanese, Chinese and American English listeners

Abstract

This study examines how ethnophonetic sounds are perceived in three different language/cultural groups. Specifically, Japanese, Chinese and American listeners were asked to listen to samples of voices of Japanese cake-selling street voices, and to rate which voice was the "best". The results indicate Japanese listeners are quite sensitive to what voice is best as a seller of fashionable Western cakes, and that this voice is different from sellers in less fashionable stores. The non-Japanese listeners rated the experienced Japanese cake-street seller voice considerably lower than did the Japanese listeners; moreover, Chinese and American listeners' differed on which street-seller voice they preferred. Tentative analysis suggests that Chinese listeners preferred a street selling voice with a higher F0, one that sounds like the moe anime voice, while American listeners preferred the voice with a more dynamic range of F0. Japanese listeners, on the other hand, preferred the voice that sounded "more elegant"-one with a touch of twang and some breathiness, a voice quality that is often perceived as being nasal (hana ni kakatta koe). An interesting question to be explored in the future is why the same voice is interpreted differently in different cultures. .

Cross cultural differences in arousal and valence perceptions of voice quality

“…The finding that Japanese listeners prefer high-pitched, non-breathy voices, while Brazilian Portuguese listeners prefer low pitched breathy voices is compatible with findings from previous studies by [5] about which voices are considered to be seductive in each of these languages. Similarly, these findings are compatible with those reported in [7] about the cake-seller voice preferred by Japanese listeners compared with the voice preferred by Indian Portuguese listeners in Goa, India: the Japanese preferred the high-pitched voice with pharyngeal narrowing (twang), while the Indian Portuguese listeners preferred the lower-pitched voice with no twang.…”

“…(These modes are also often referred to in the literature as breathy, falsetto and modal, respectively). In addition, because we were interested in exploring the twang characteristic of the cake seller voice [6,7], the speaker narrowed her pharynx in order to produce nasal and oral vowels on a high F0 with thin folds. An additional sound was produced in which the speaker raised the tongue dorsum, keeping F0 low and the vocal folds thin.…”

“…It has also been shown that ethnophonetics-particular cultural/social contexts in which the utterances are madeplays a role in cultural preferences for certain voice qualities (e.g. [6,7]). For example, a cross-cultural study on Japanese "cake-seller" voices suggests that Japanese listeners prefer the voice with a slight twang (pharyngeal narrowing), while listeners from India prefer a voice without any twang [7].…”

“…[6,7]). For example, a cross-cultural study on Japanese "cake-seller" voices suggests that Japanese listeners prefer the voice with a slight twang (pharyngeal narrowing), while listeners from India prefer a voice without any twang [7]. As for a "seductive, flirtatious" voice, Japanese listeners prefer a non-breathy voice with high F0, while Americans, French, and Brazilian Portuguese prefer a lower, more breathy voice [5,8].…”