Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9008-1024

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-3-2024

Publication Title

Language in Society

First Page

1

Last Page

30

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404524000319

Abstract

Despite the significance of intersex constituencies for explaining the social nature of sex and gender, intersex linguistic and social practices remain a yet unexplored frontier within sociolinguistics. This article examines fundamental frequency (F0) and vowel formant (F1–F3) production by participants with Turner Syndrome (TS), one of the most common intersex chromosomal conditions, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This analysis demonstrates significant differences in fundamental frequency and F3 among different participant groups. I argue that height, growth hormone, and chromosomes are fundamental in constructing womanhood for TS women. Along with relevant ethnographic data, these results call for a re-examination of the body within linguistic and anthropological understandings of ‘womanhood’ and ‘femaleness’. This article highlights the ways these biological factors intersect with gendered perceptions of age and maturity, which can have real-world effects on linguistic practice and the social life of intersex individuals. (Brazilian Portuguese, fundamental frequency, gender, intersex, Turner Syndrome, vowel formants, critical intersex studies)*

Comments

This article was published open access under the Open Access Publishing Agreement between the University of Nebraska and Cambridge University Press.

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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