Beguš, Gašper. 2021. Segmental Phonetics and Phonology in Caucasian languages. In Polinsky, Maria (ed.) The Oxford handbook of languages of the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 689-728.
Bellem, Alex. 2009. The “problem” of pharyngealisation and its role in the sound systems of North-East Caucasian languages. Presentation at the International Workshop on Pharyngeals & Pharyngealisation, Newcastle University, 26 - 27 March 2009.
Forker, Diana. 2020. A grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Johnson, K. 2006. Resonance in an exemplar-based lexicon: The emergence of social identity and phonology. Journal of Phonetics, 34(4), 485–499.
Kachel, S., M.C., S., & Niedlich, C. 2016. Traditional masculinity and femininity: Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles, Frontiers in Psychology 7, p. 956, 2016.
Munson, B., & Babel, M. 2019. The phonetics of sex and gender. In W. F. Katz & P. F. Assmann (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of phonetics (pp. 499–525). Routledge.
Runge, T. E., Frey, D., Gollwitzer, P. E., Helmreich, R. L., & Spence, J. T. 1981. Masculine (instrumental) and feminine (expressive) traits: A comparison between students in the United States and West Germany, J Cross Cult Psychol, vol. 12, pp. 142-162.
Simpson, Adrian & Melanie Weirich. 2020. Phonetic Correlates of Sex, Gender and Sexual Orientation. In: Mark Aronoff (Ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weirich, Melanie & Adrian Simpson. 2018. Gender identity is indexed and perceived in speech. PLoS ONE 13(12): e0209226. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209226

Acoustic phonetic differences such as higher mean fundamental frequency (f0) and higher vowel formants in speakers assigned female at birth (AFAB) compared to speakers assigned male at birth (AMAB) cannot be explained by physiological differences alone but are affected by culture-specific learned gender roles (Johnson 2006, Munson & Babel 2019, Weirich & Simpson 2020). For example, a correlation has been found between self-ascribed femininity and certain acoustic parameters regardless of gender identity (Weirich & Simpson 2018). However, most studies until today have been focused on large Western languages and cultures. Studies on non-European languages spoken by small communities with gender roles that differ from Western cultures are basically inexistent. The aim of our poster is to fill that gap by presenting a sociophonetic analysis of gender in Sanzhi Dargwa, a little described East Caucasian (or Nakh-Daghestanian) language (Forker 2020).
Sanzhi Dargwa is spoken by approximately 250 speakers and is heavily endangered. All speakers live in the Dagestanian lowlands, mostly in the ethnically and linguistically mixed settlement Druzhba (Russian Federation). Sanzhi people are Sunni Muslims. Binary gender roles in the Sanzhi community – as in all other Dagestanian communities – are clearly defined, relatively strongly separated, and based on a patriarchic hierarchy with the eldest men enjoying the highest esteem. Women and men have distinct tasks and occupations within the family, even though many Women have a higher education and work outside the home, a phenomenon mainly influenced by the Soviet history.
Based on previous findings we hypothesize that in a society such as Sanzhi with two clearly differentiated gender roles similar acoustic parameters should at least as strongly differ between AFAB and AMAB speakers as in western societies such as Germany or the US with less pronounced bimodal gender roles. To test this hypothesis, we recorded 23 speakers of Sanzhi (13 AFAB, 10 AMAB) and gathered sociodemographic data by means of a questionnaire regarding age, education, occupation, spoken languages, mobility and self-ascribed gender identity using two psychological scales (GEPAQ, Runge et al. 1981 and TMF, Kachel et al. 2016). A range of acoustic parameters (first and second formants, mean fundamental frequency) were measured in comparable speech samples (around 3-5 minutes, usually narrative about daily activities and the personal life). Moreover, we have analyzed pharyngealized vowels, which are a typical feature of East Caucasian languages and known to differ from pharyngealization in Semitic languages such as Arabic (e.g. Beguš 2021, Bellem 2009).
In our poster we will present the first description of the acoustic vowel space in Sanzhi. Our data shows the anticipated larger vowel spaces in AFAB speakers. In addition, we find higher F2 values in pharyngealized vowels compared to non-pharyngealized vowels in both genders. Regarding mean f0, our analyses reveal the expected difference between the genders (AFAB: 197.3 Hz, AMAB: 129.5 Hz). We will present our analysis of between and within-gender variation in gender-specific fine phonetic detail with respect to the sociodemographic and gender related questionnaire data and compare it with the findings from other languages and cultures.