CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSSEXUAL PEOPLE´S VOICE: GENDER EXPRESSED AND GENDER PERCEIVED

Abstract

OBJECTIVES

To study the characteristics of transgender people´s voice making a contribution to the field of human voice knowledge.
a) To measure the Fundamental Frequency, Formants, Shimmer, Jitter and Harmonic Noise Ratio of transsexual people´s voices previously and after a specific workshop voice therapy.
b) To analyze qualitatively the spectrograms obtained from the vocal samples.
c) To relate this parameters with the subjective feeling of vocal genre caused in trained and untrained listeners.
d) To provide data to produce future intervention strategies in population of transsexual people.

Materials and method
Acoustic analysis of the voices of three transsexual people, previously and subsequently to attend a voice care workshop for transgender people. The samples were submitted to a panel of expert and inexpert listeners.

Results
The results obtained after a vocal intervention showed improvement over previous. The information, about parameters that cause sense of masculinity or femininity in the listeners, is not conclusive.

Conclusions
Voice therapy is configured as an efficient and effective intervention during transformation. This study lays the groundwork for future research in the area.