An Emerging Gender Difference in Japanese Vowel Devoicing 183Both ¿ gures show a similar pattern, with the sex differences within the same
age group slightly larger for /u/.
- Discussion
These results suggest that vowel devoicing is a nonstandard feature because,
as mentioned earlier, young males tend to be attracted to the covert pres-
tige associated with nonstandard features, and nonstandard features usually
occur in more casual speech style. Moreover, younger females tend to be
attracted to the overt prestige associated with standard features, and stan-
dard features usually occur in more formal speech styles. This may explain
why younger males devoice most and younger females devoice least. How-
ever, there are studies that show native speakers’ perception of vowel devoic-
ing as standard. For example, Maekawa (1988) states that if the ¿ nal vowel
in the polite copula /desu / in sentence-¿ nal position is not devoiced, it sounds
“strange.” He also states that, in a consecutive devoicing environment, such
Figure 6.3 Age and sex for /i/.
Figure 6.4 Age and sex for /u/.