Between Excitement and Triumph - Live Football Commentaries in Radio vs. TV

For this study temporal and pitch characteristics in live football commentaries broadcast on television and the radio were studied with the focus on the situation after a goal where the speakers show the highest level of excitement. The most prominent feature of the ‘goal roar’ from the (usually male) commentators is the extremely high pitch of 400 Hz or more. The ‘triumphalese’ style is additionally marked by lengthening in comparison to commentaries with goals against the supported team. Although audio-visual and audio-only commentators show many phonetic similarities in the way goals are reported, they also show consistent differences in their use of pitch, pauses, articulation rate and amount of talk. The results are discussed with regard to the frequency code and speech styles.