Sunday, January 6, 2013

Creaky voice?

This blog post has nothing to do with the Razzberry Corner farm, but it just struck my fancy, and so I'm writing it.  I read today about "vocal fry" or "creaky voice" in women.  I thought it was so funny, but interesting. 

https://soundcloud.com/slateradio/lexicon-valley-24-get-your

Listen to this podcast, specifically at 4:30 when the guy tells the girl to "be obnoxious".  Also at 23:25 a clip from a Mae West film is reviewed to hear the creaky voice. 

They call it creaky voice in linguistics.  They go on to say that women use different voices to get specific results.  Linguistics is very interesting: different vocal characteristics, or voice qualities, different meanings.  They say creaky voice is specific to American women, specifically to young up and coming professional women.  The men's discussion and reaction in this podcast are quite funny if you listen to it all the way through.

Right now I have a cold, so I have a "breathy voice".    I better watch out, I could be saying things I don't actually mean!

Have you ever found yourself using creaky voice on purpose?  Get your creak on, women!

3 comments:

JosephAlsarraf said...

I don't know, i've never heard that before? I would listen to the podcast, but I can't because my cat is sitting on my head phones.
: )

Farm Girl said...

Wow what a great podcast. I was surprised that this kind of speech is considered for the upwardly mobile. I never noticed that before in speech but once you hear it, I realize I hear it all of the time. I just didn't think of it like this. I enjoy learning about speech and words and meanings and things like this so I will be listening to more. Thank you this was fun.

Razzberry Corner said...

Kim - Thanks for commenting, I thought it was interesting, too. I'll have to go check out your blog, it's been a while. I miss chatting with you via comments!
~Lynn