Comments on: Deep-voiced "vocal fry" thought to be creeping into American women's speech

By: Stephanie Williams

Stephanie Williams — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:59:00 +0000

I do the vocal fry, voluntarily, to freak friends out. Only the people who have watched The Grudge get it. Guess I’ll stop now that it would damage my voice /shrug

By: kaidaigoji

kaidaigoji — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:28:00 +0000

I’m really surprised that BoingBoing doesn’t know how to read a scientific paper. As language log posted, the paper in question doesn’t concern changes over time, or male/female differences. The creaky voice phenomenon can be shown in speakers born fifty or more years ago, including an example from Mae West.

It’s funny – if it’s a paper about neutrinos, I know boingboing will check it out before passing on the hyperbole, but with language apparently anything goes.

By: dahlia

dahlia — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:07:00 +0000

huh, i do this sometimes, i didn’t know it was a “thing.” but now that it’s been pointed out, i have noticed it more in the speech of young people. where i might use it depending on the situation, in many younger folks it seems to be a permanent part of their voice.

that said, i can’t say it particularly annoys me, i don’t give it much thought. it’s WAY less annoying than the up-inflection others have already mentioned — that is SO IRRITATING.

By: dahlia

dahlia — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:52:00 +0000

yeh but am i bovvered, though? am i, though?

By: TheMudshark

TheMudshark — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:51:00 +0000

I had a math teacher once that could do the same.

By: Erational

Erational — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:31:00 +0000

“I’m talking about the example where the lowest pitches edge into vocal fry, rather than younger women who speak only in vocal fry.”

Yes, but that’s rather different than the sort of vocal fry that so many people here find annoying. What you describe is an incidental consequence in sifting one’s speech to the lower end of one’s natural register; whereas what many young women do is use a sort of cultivated affect that makes them sound perpetually bored and disengaged, so it’s no wonder it rubs many people the wrong way.

By: Erational

Erational — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:22:00 +0000

Thirty-something Canadian girl here, and I notice it constantly among people (girls, mostly) in their mid/high twenties and below. The difference is primarily generational, and, I suspect, has a lot to do with the American media consumed by young people here, particularly as its influence is now rarely counterbalanced by extended exposure to the moderating effect of parents’ speech (daily family dinners, stay-at-home parenting, etc).

By: wingo shackleford

wingo shackleford — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:32:00 +0000

Wow. Sculpted Goatee Guy has it down to science. He practically says everything in that range. I’m probably just old (get off my lawn), but it just sounds like ‘I don’t actually give a shit about what I’m saying’ tone. I guess it’s just super informal/casual.

By: wingo shackleford

wingo shackleford — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:22:00 +0000

I just noticed the young lady in this video* does an excellent example of this. For instance: at about 30 sec she says the phrase “about the 1930′s” entirely in the “creak”/growl-y range. Suddenly I hear this *everywhere*. Granted, I do live in SoCal. But it is kinda weird when you are paying specific attention to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWAgt_YCNuw

*TBH I have not watched beyond approx 1 minute, and probably do not endorse the content of this weird video. It is made by the “Center for Freedom and Prosperity” which some kind of tax lobbying foundation or something that sounds very creepy to me.

By: artaxerxes

artaxerxes — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:16:00 +0000

Aw, hell yeah! One of my favorite movie scenes of all time.

“Rrrrround tohnes, Miss Lamont, rrrroound Tohnes.”

The Gene Kelly/Donald O’Connor “Moses supposes his toes aren’t roses, but Moses supposes erroneously,” makes a brilliant chaser.

By: artaxerxes

artaxerxes — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

That finally explains why my mother became a speech therapist. Thank you.

By: artaxerxes

artaxerxes — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:58:00 +0000

I guess you’re not a big fan of Lauren Bacall’s voice. I’m sorry.

By: JohnnyLA

JohnnyLA — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:50:00 +0000

It seems to be prevalent in high-tech dev start-up videos.

http://vimeo.com/33429172

They should just call him Mr. Vocal fry

By: Sparg Otyebat

Sparg Otyebat — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:50:00 +0000

If vocal fry continues, the terroristi have won?

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:08:00 +0000

These are not the yogis you’re looking for /waves hand.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Why is it that Americans think that Brits sound educated when they enunciate but Americans sound affected? No doubt related to our unwillingness to trust a government official who isn’t stupider than us.

By: Ben Burger

Ben Burger — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:38:00 +0000

I’ve done this, heard others do it, and just never noticed it or even knew it was notable, or that it even had a name until now. Nobody has ever mentioned this before, I’m in Southern Ontario btw

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:29:00 +0000

I had a door-to-door canvasser stop by, who had both “glottal T” and the uptalk. “So we’re out looking for some suppor’?”

By: cdh1971

cdh1971 — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:29:00 +0000

I had a speech therapist who tried to rid me of a slight lisp that was causing me absolutely no issues and also tried to ‘cure’ me of being left-handed and remnants of southern pronunciation picked up after living there two years. She also openly mocked a teacher from Canada, and made snide hitler references whenever a German exchange student was present. This was in middle-school.

When I was 4 I had very effective speech therapy for my R’s from a delightful therapist. Every profession has its quacks and the middle-school therapist was simply an idiot. I’ve attached a likeness of her – click to enlarge.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:14:00 +0000

My first wife habitually overcorrected the other direction, going out of her way to overenunciate the Ts in buttons, mittens, and kittens. She also habitually referred to a quarter as “a twenty-five cents.” As in, “I just found a twenty-five cents on the floor.”

She was cute, but kooky.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Followed shortly by CHP officers?

“I can go about my business. Move along.”

By: Thomas D

Thomas D — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000

This is another mislabeling, I think. Raspiness (e.g., Bonnie Tyler) and huskiness (e.g., Kathleen Turner) are not in themselves vocal fry.

Vocal fry is something very specific and distinct.

By: jes5199

jes5199 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:27:00 +0000

I’ve heard plenty of men do that, as well. I can’t help but think of them as “California Boys”, even when I hear it in Oregon.

By: Stephen Hemingway

Stephen Hemingway — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:17:00 +0000

“Vocal Fry” has nothing on the recent over-use of the word “so” to begin a sentence (usually in response to a question). Like vocal fry, it’s very popular on NPR.

By: marilove

marilove — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:32:00 +0000

For the record, when I said, “You”, I meant “general you”, not you specifically! Sorry about that.

“Fair enough. What I should have said was “consciously having a negative thought”"

Thanks for the clarification. I do agree a little more with your points now that I understand them a bit better.

However, I do wish more people didn’t just stick their head in the sand, in regards to privilege, stereotyping, etc. So many people just aren’t at all self-aware. I’m sure I, too, am not always fully aware of my privileges, but at least I try, and I don’t just stick my fingers in my ears and claim privilege doesn’t exist.

Our world would be a much better place if people were more self-aware.

By: Marco Antonio Morales

Marco Antonio Morales — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:02:00 +0000

I love ‘vocal fry’ in female singers. From Divinyls to Bonnie Tyler, there’s something surly and sexy about it. It gives the voice an ‘edge’, and I’ve always been aware of it.

Even my poor wife has to endure my advances when she’s sick and croaky, and has that sizzling, husky and sexy ‘morning voice’ (aka vocal-fry).

By: mak1982

mak1982 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Huh, I’m surprised by some of the comments on here. I’ve noticed this vocal habit before, and where I’ve generally noticed it is in middle aged women who are in majority male professions. I know I tend to lower my speaking voice unconsciously when I’m talking with men. When I was a kid I actually had a teacher tell me no one was going to take anything I said seriously if I spoke in such a high register, and I think that the thought of women’s voices as unpleasantly high and grating is internalized by many women, causing them to lower the register of their speaking voice to such an extent that when they lower the pitch for inflection they range into the fry range. I’m talking about the example where the lowest pitches edge into vocal fry, rather than younger women who speak only in vocal fry.

tl;dr: Women speak lower than their natural register because of sexist views of women’s speech and women’s voices, not because they find vocal fry so awesome.

By: morganw

morganw — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:13:00 +0000

Zoe Chace does it a lot, but also has an interesting mid-Atlantic accent and a somewhat *high* voice, so that descent into buzzing is quite dramatic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzgXE5SsCHM

By: Thomas D

Thomas D — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:10:00 +0000

“How about Abigail Breslin she has this affect in bulk”

She’s definitely in permanent uptalk mode — and she’s got that whole vowel-shift thing going on, where “with” becomes “weth” — but I don’t hear an inordinate amount of vocal fry there.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:09:00 +0000

You mean replacing ‘T’ with a glottal stop? It’s a common feature of regional accents, such as Cockney.