Examining the Differences between the Acoustic Parameters of Persian and Turkish-Qashqai Languages in Persian/Turkish-Qashqai Bilinguals

Vocal characteristics can be influenced by the speakers’ race or ethnicity, age and the language used. How language alone influences vocal quality still remains unclear. To study how language alone affects vocal quality, the effect of age, race or ethnicity need to be excluded. This can be done by studying vocal characteristics associated with languages produced by adult bilingual speakers.
This was a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. 32 Persian/Turkish-Qashqai bilinguals (16 men and 16 women) who possessed the inclusion criteria were studied. Two continuous speech samples (Persian and Turkish-Qashqai) were obtained from the subjects. Fundamental Frequency values were obtained by the PRAAT software.
The mean fundamental frequency values in Persian and Turkish-Qashqai were 178.40 and 180.41 Hertz. The standard deviations in the two groups were 28.68 and 28.83, respectively. The mean Fundamental Frequency Range for Persian and Turkish-Qashqai were 227.69 and 218.62, respectively. The aforementioned numbers indicate that their differences were not statistically significant.
Given that the values of Fundamental Frequency were not significantly different between the Persian and Turkish-Qashqai languages, we can say that language has no effect on the voice of these people. Therefore, the same clinical norms of Fundamental Frequency that are used for Persians can be used for Turkish-Qashqai people too.