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The study in a sentence
The study in a sentence
When we speak, we indicate many aspects of our identity, but how do people do this in highly gendered spaces?
This study investigated how straight and non-straight women, who were or were not members of a football club, produced the sound /s/.
The study explores the interplay of gender, sexuality and identity effects on accent.
The question
The question
The sound /s/ is a useful sociolinguistic variable as there is a way to measure differences in how the sound is produced using centre of gravity: higher values reflect a more ‘hissy’ /s/ produced with the tongue further forward in the mouth.
Studies have shown that, on average (Podesva & Van Hofwegen, 2016; Hazenberg 2016):
women produce /s/ with higher centre of gravity than men;
gay men produce /s/ with a higher centre of gravity than straight men;
gay women produce /s/ with lower centre of gravity than straight women.
Professional women’s football was not recognised in the UK until 1971 (thefa.com), so the women in this study probably had to push back against older attitudes to play the sport. Being a footballer or being sporty is probably also a big part of their identity.
Key concept
Key concept
Socio-indexical features can serve to mark us as belonging to a particular group. Some features of speech can be socio-indexical in how they mark us as being e.g. straight or gay. The sound /s/ is socio-indexical in that speakers tend to use a different tongue position to mark gender and sexuality.
Do women in a local football club differ in their pronunciation of /s/ from women who aren't in the club?
Do women in a local football club differ in their pronunciation of /s/ from women who aren't in the club?
Does the pronunciation of /s/ act as a marker of identity across both club membership and individual sexuality?
Figure 1: Illustration of how /s/ looks when visualised acoustically.
Methods
Methods
Sociolinguistic interviews were recorded with 22 women from Yorkshire: 9 were members of the same local football club and 13 were not. The non-members included both straight and gay individuals.
Acoustic measurements were taken in examples of the sound /s/ as a measure of tongue position, known as centre of gravity. The results were compared across straight versus gay speakers and across club members and non-members.
Figure 2: Results for /s/ centre of gravity across sexuality and group membership.
The answer
The answer
Average /s/ centre of gravity was lower for gay women than for straight women.
Members of the football club had a lower /s/ centre of gravity than non-members.
Identity as 'sporty' overlaps and interacts with the expression of sexuality.
This study is an example of ‘third wave’ sociolinguistics: it explores the effects of speech communities which may not map directly onto simple combinations of sociolinguistic factors (such as age, gender, or sexuality).
Classroom activities
Classroom activities
Lead in task
Lead in task
Thinking about in- and out-group use of language
Extension task
Extension task
Reflecting on different 'waves' of sociolinguistic research methods
In more detail
In more detail
Workshop talk (video) [will be posted a few weeks after the workshop]
CPD2025_womens_football_slides.pdfWorkshop talk (slides) [coming soon]
Meet the author
Meet the author
Salina is a researcher and teacher of sociolinguistics at the University of York. Her PhD investigated the concept of a "gay voice" in female British English speakers.
Read the paper
Read the paper
Cuddy, Salina (in press) For the love of Sporty Spice: The interaction of gender, sexuality, and sport in /s/ production. download PDF
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