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3.1.1 Differences in Pronunciation
Gender differences in pronunciation mainly reflect a more accurate pronunciation form in women than men (Labov, 1966). For example, in the 1960s, William Labov conducted an investigation of the pronunciation of English in New York. Through the survey he found that the distinct difference between women and men was the variable th as in the word thing. Women more often produce the standard, or correct pronunciation (an internal fricative /θ/), while men often produce another sound, like /t/ as in the word thin, a usage which is generally recognized as socially disadvantageous or stigmatized. In the same vein, other studies in the U.S. have confirmed Labov’s conclusion that women demonstrate greater use of standard and prestige pronunciations than men of the same age, social or racial group. In English pronunciation, male like to express the verb –ing in the form of –in’. Male often produce the sound /ɪn/ rather than/ɪŋ/. While female pay more attention to the pure standard language.
Secondly, the sound quality difference is also obvious: from a physiological point of view, there is a difference between the vocal organ of men and women. The vocal cords of male are longer, thicker and looser than women. Such differences will inevitably lead to a gender difference in the sound quality. The gender differences in the English sound quality reflect a voice phenomenon with social tags (Jia, 1997). Take the vowels before the nasal for example, American English nasal vowels are used by male, and accent vowels are mostly used by women. To explain it from cultural perspective, nasal phenomenon has the rough implication, while the female manners should be appropriately graceful, and thus it is not suitable for them to use nasal vowels.
Much research has shown that female pronounce vowels clearer and more correct than male. Men tend to use open, non-standard and difficult to be acceptable phonological variants, but women prefer to pronounce correctly, and seldom use phonological varieties. Women are eager to speak more standard and refined accents.
3.1.2 Differences in Intonation
A famous linguistic researcher states that women's intonation is more dynamic than men's. Female tend to raise their tone and usually display wider ranges of pitches more frequent and rapid shifts than men．In verbal communication, the rising tone express her voice is certain. However, the falling tone means that she is full of doubts and expectations. The intonation patterns of men and women vary somewhat, women using certain patterns associated with surprise and politeness more often than men．In the same vein, Lakoff (2004) says that women may answer a question with a statement that employs the rising intonation pattern associated with a question rather than the falling intonation pattern associated with making a firm statement.
Men: “When shall we go shopping?”
Women: “Oh，around eight o’clock tomorrow morning?”
Men: “”
The tone of consultation reflects that women are thought to be tender, obedient, caring and respectful (Chen, 1985). They may even add “If that is ok with you.” or “If you agree.” On the contrary, men are more likely to use imperative sentence in falling tone, showing their fortitude and a firm character.
To conclusion, women usually use the standard and authoritative pronunciation. Women pronounce more correctly and clearly than men. They speak more standard language and have more language competence than men, because they believe that pronunciation is an important symbol of their own value and upbringing. However, men do not pay attention to these tiny things, using non-standard forms of speech at most of time. What’s more, they are also proud about it subconsciously. Females have more changes in intonation than male. They always have high pitch and tend to raise their tone in speech, but men usually don’t. Females maintain a high degree of sensitivity to whether their voice is correct or not.