Podesva analyzed recordings of a single gay man living in San Francisco, Regan, in three different contexts: a night out drinking, a private dinner with a friend, and a meeting with his boss. Podesva’s The California Vowel Shift and Gay Identity. That being said, a recent article in American Speech suggests that a certain type of subcultural “gay accent” is not only a measurable phenomenon, but may have a unique relationship to a regional variety of English. I don’t give credence to the idea of a universal “gay voice.” So before going further, let me state that I believe gay men speak with as wide an array of voices as heterosexual men.
The notion of “talking gay,” after all, is a staple of homophobic parody. Is there such a thing as a “ gay accent?” I wouldn’t even touch this question were there not a decent amount of scholarly research about it.
