New study reveals how Taylor Swift has changed the way she talks

By Stephen Beech

Taylor Swift has changed the way she talks, reveals a new study.

Researchers tracked how the iconic US superstar's dialect has altered over the years by analyzing dozens of her recorded interviews.

They say their findings offer a glimpse into the shifting nature of the Shake It Off singer's speech patterns.

The team identified two major changes in the way 35-year-old Swift talks.

The study, published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), showed that Pennsylvania-born Swift adopted features of the southern American accent when she lived in Nashville.

And the researchers found a second "major shift" came when Swift "lowered the pitch" of her voice after she moved to New York City in 2014.

They believe the second shift made her more of a "voice of authority" when she began speaking out on social issues.

Swift is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, the highest-grossing live music artist, and the wealthiest female musician.

Thanks to years of recorded interviews, scientists say she is also influencing how we understand the ways that people adopt accents and regional dialects.

Study authors Miski Mohamed and Dr. Matthew Winn, from the University of Minnesota, analyzed years of Swift’s recorded interviews to track how her dialect has evolved.

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They showed that studying high-profile dialect shifts such as Swift’s can help scientists better understand the scope of those dialects, not just in terms of geographic area but also in terms of social group, age, and leadership status.

Dr. Winn said: “Taylor Swift is perfect for this type of longitudinal analysis because she has been interviewed and recorded many times over the years and had motivations for changing her accent at specific times."

The duo studied Swift’s dialect from recordings of interviews she gave when living in Nashville, when she moved back home to Pennsylvania, and when she relocated to New York City.

From those interviews, the team selected more than 1,400 vowel sounds and analyzed them using software to measure the vocal resonances.

Dr. Winn said: “Those resonances indicate the exact way that a person articulates a vowel.

“The key thing about analyzing dialects is measuring the movement of the vowel through the mouth from the start to the end of the vowel - that’s what makes it distinct across dialects.

"We made 10 measurements per vowel to show this movement, which was key to showing how her articulation changed in the different cities.”

Their findings showed how Swift adopted features of the Southern accent when she lived in Nashville, particularly the monophthongisation of the /aɪ/ vowel - pronouncing words like ‘ride’ more like "rod" - and the fronting of the /u/ vowel - shifting words like "two" to sound like "tee-you".

Those traits disappeared after she moved back to Philadelphia, according to the study.

The researchers speculated that Swift’s use of the Southern accent could have been a way to integrate into the country music community, as opposed to just connecting with Nashville as a city.

Dr. Winn said: “The second major shift we saw was that Taylor lowered the pitch of her voice when she moved to New York City.

“This was the time in her career when she became more well-known for speaking up on issues of social change and feminism, as well as musician’s rights."

He added: "Sometimes people with a lower pitch are perceived as a voice of authority, and it is possible that she was making use of that tendency to ensure her message was received.”