Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Linguistics and Cognitive Science

Reader 1

Ernesto Gutierrez Topete

Reader 2

Michael Diercks

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Malena L Sparano

Abstract

The comparative lack of research about Queer identities among speakers of other languages limits cross-linguistic and cross-cultural understanding of Queerness within an increasingly globalized community (Cameron and Kulick, 2003). Moreover, the focus on Monolingual, Western, men’s repertoires excludes important nuances that shape identities falling outside the heteropatriarchy, significantly neglecting Sapphic people and Lesbians (Leap, 2008). Sapphic identity helps broaden the scope of traditionally very gendered labeling, stemming from Zita’s (1981) definition as a person identifying as a woman/non-man and experiencing attraction to women or non-men. Bilingual research is key in understanding the specific roles of multivariable cultural and phonetic analysis when shaping Sapphic identities.

This study aims to compare how bilingual Mandarin-English speakers utilize specific acoustic resources, pitch and creaky voice, to index Sapphic identities. This study presents a matched-guise protocol to investigate language attitudes toward the features used by bilinguals’ to categorize perceptual understandings of what can be indexed as uniquely Sapphic. Examining how phonetic variants index Queerness beyond English/Western stereotypes that monolithize the Queer community (Zimman, 2018), data shows that specific acoustic contexts allow bilingual Sapphic individuals to create and pick up on Queer/Sapphic identities. The need for non-English languages as a medium for Queer expression and performance—and the need for bilingual repertories to be supported and explored—thus moves away from a singular “gay” identity, and supports how Sapphic identities use cross-linguistic input to form their identity.

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