CAPSTONE PROJECT: PITCH CHANGE IN KAZAKH-RUSSIAN-ENGLISH MULTILINGUAL YOUNG ADULTS
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Date
2023
Authors
Isteliyeva, Aida
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
School of Sciences and Humanities
Abstract
If you ever interacted with the same person in different languages, you might have
noticed their voice sounding differently. This phenomenon is the object of this study about the
change of pitch Kazakh-Russian-English trilinguals exhibit in speaking different languages. A
physical representation of a human's pitch is fundamental frequency - the frequency with which
vocal cords vibrate during speech. To see whether a change of pitch can be proved empirically, I
conducted a series of recordings among 32 students of Nazarbayev University. This resulted in
192 recordings which were grouped depending on the gender and the first language of the
speaker, as well as the elicitation method. The recordings were analyzed for each separate
participant and in groupings using a t-test and linear mixed effect model. The participants also
had to provide us with their self-assessed level of linguistic skills and their linguistic repertoire.
The possible explanations for our results were provided by previous research in Bilingualism
studies and Psycholinguistics. My study results in several findings regarding the interaction of
different factors and the change of pitch. One of them is that the change of pitch seems to depend
on the first language of the speaker. The change of pitch overall does not exhibit universal
tendencies: separate analysis for each of the participants shows that change of pitch exists as it
manifests in 28 out of 32 participants, however, there is no single reason or interaction that
attests to all of the differences present in my data. Confidence level also shows a significant
result for Kazakh speakers but not the others.
Description
Keywords
Type of access: Open Access, Pitch, Kazakh-Russian-English multilingual, young adults
Citation
Isteliyeva, A. (2023). Capstone project: Pitch change in Kazakh-Russian-English multilingual young adults. School of Sciences and Humanities