Sharing innovative methods, data and knowledge across sociophonetics and forensic speech science

Abstract

Forensic speech science is the application of speech analysis methods to forensic recordings; in many jurisdictions this is predominantly the application of sociophonetics. Sociophonetics and forensic speech science have developed as independent research areas with their own aims, methodologies and identities, and the gap between the fields has arguably grown bigger in recent years. Yet, there is much to be gained for both fields from closer collaboration through sharing methods, data, and knowledge. We will argue that this is more important now given the increasing demands on forensic science to more rigorously and empirically test and validate methods, and current trends in sociophonetics towards understanding how different linguistic variables are used by speakers to enact different identities in different situations. In this paper, we review the relationship between sociophonetics and forensic speech science. We also outline how developments in both fields can, and do, directly contribute to improving the quality of forensic voice evidence, as well as informing theoretical and practical aspects of sociophonetics.

Towards Methodological and Theoretical Synergies between Forensic Phonetics and Third Wave Sociophonetics

“…The crossover between socio-and forensic phonetic methods has recently been discussed by Hughes and Wormald (2020), showing how the two disciplines have value in collaboration, while pointing out the need for each field to consider more deeply the benefits of its work for the other, as well as the influence it may have on research in each. Kendall and Fridland (2021) state that the goal of a sociophonetician is to understand phonetic-based differences between speakers and groups, how they come about, and how they are perceived.…”

“…Research into forensic phonetics has grown in the past three decades, while technological development in the field has manifested into forensic speech science. This partially stems from demands for the use of more data-driven methods (Hughes and Wormald 2020), which correspond to an increasing recognition that forensic phonetics as both a field and in practice is a scientific discipline.…”

“…At a surface level, the aims and perspectives of each discipline seem distinctive; however, this article endeavours to show how they can be useful to each other, as well as open new doors in both fields of research. There has been recent discussion by Hughes and Wormald (2020) of the similarities between the two fields, with specific focus on transferability of data and methods, explaining how the basis of forensic phonetic analysis derives from methods and knowledge in sociophonetics. According to Kendall and Fridland, "forensic phonetics is an allied field to sociophonetics, with many similar research practices" (2021: 184) and, therefore, this discussion aims to show the benefits of methodological and theoretical convergence between each discipline, while highlighting the areas in which this can be accomplished.…”

Voice disguise and foreign accent: Prosodic aspects of English produced by Bra-zilian Portuguese speakers

“…On the other hand, forensic speech scientists/experts need to assess not only the similarity between the voices, but also, crucially, the typicality of features in the wider population as pointed out by Hughes and Wormald (2017), and thoroughly discussed by Brescancini and Gonçalves (2020) as part of the weighting model for sociophonetic evidence in the task of speaker comparison. Besides similarity and typicality, Brescancini and Gonçalves ( 2020) propose a third level for the analysis between reference and questioned voice; the 'individuality'.…”

A review of social background profiling of speakers from speech accents

“…Additionally, the commonly short duration of test samples results in the availability of fewer vowels in the speech, which are also critical for the classification task ( Brown, 2018 ). Social, linguistics, forensic, and speech communities have emphasised the need for collaborative research in forensic speech science to avoid innocent convictions and discrimination towards a particular community during the course of criminal investigations or justice processes ( Hughes & Wormald, 2020 ).…”