AGE MARKERS OF PROSODY OF SPEECH

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of intonation characteristics of women – inhabitants of Southern England. In this research the author describes intonation peculiarities of different age groups using recent sound signals processing
programs. According to the results of the electro-acouistic analysis, an attempt has been made at suggesting that women normalize their pronunciation at the age of thirty, especially if they want to get well-paid job or good social status. Being
teenagers, the girls try to speak correctly; their speech is characterized by using some means of expression, such as scandent and sliding scales, complex and compound terminal tones. Being students, the girls are in the making of the
intonation standard RP. The range of tone in their speech is increasing, intensity is decreasing, tempo is getting slower and their speech becomes purer “phonetically”. And only at the age of 31-40 the intonation of women corresponds to all
the parameters of the intonation standard RP. Compared with V.Tonkonogov’s results obtained from the material of male voices, our data indicate that in the group of women the optimal combination of parameters corresponding to the intonation norm is established earlier – up to 40 years, compared to men (they have 50 years).