Differences in acoustic vowel space and the perception of speech tempo

• Mismatch between empirical evidence and stereotype of faster speaking women.
• Use of temporally normalized stimuli with varying vowel space sizes.
• Perceived tempo is influenced by acoustic vowel space size.
• Greater female vowel space might explain stereotype of faster speaking women.

Despite various studies describing longer segment durations and slower speaking rates in females than males, there appears to be a stereotype of women speaking faster than men. To investigate the mismatch between empirical evidence and this widespread stereotype, listening experiments were conducted to test whether a relationship between perceived tempo and acoustic vowel space size might exists. If a speaker traverses a larger acoustic vowel space than another speaker within the same time then this speaker might be perceived as speaking faster. To test this, two listening experiments with either exclusively female or male speakers but with varying vowel space sizes were conducted. Listeners were asked to rate the perceived speech tempo of same-sex speaker pairs. The stimuli were manipulated to have the same segment durations and f0 contour. Results indicate that a positive correlation between acoustic vowel space size and perceived speech tempo exists. Since females exhibit on average a larger acoustic vowel space than males, it is suggested that the stereotype of faster speaking women might arise from this.