A study published on arXiv examined how language and individual style contribute to charismatic speech in bilingual contexts.
The analysis covered spontaneous speeches from 10 politicians addressing audiences in both Luxembourgish and French within similar communicative settings. Researchers extracted 41 acoustic-prosodic features linked to vocal charisma using mixed-effects models.
Key Findings
Speaker identity was found to account for the majority of variance in vocal charisma. Language explained less variance but demonstrated systematic differences between the two tongues.
French productions exhibited higher shimmer and phrase-final F0, characteristics associated with a polite, respectful voice. In contrast, Luxembourgish productions displayed stronger mid-frequency spectral energy, suggesting a more vocally present profile.
These acoustic patterns align with sociolinguistic roles where Luxembourgish functions as an informal identity language while French serves as a high-prestige institutional variety.
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16275
