(Thinkstock)I've got it. Add it on to the other speech patterns I've been criticized for,
including: baby talk when I'm asking for a favor—I know it's the
worst—and saying the words "you know" when I'm stalling a story to think
about what I'm going to say next. But forget it, I've got "creaky
voice," so you probably won't want to hear the thing I'm going to say
anyway. (Look out! Falling piano!)
Related: Baby talk: annoying nonsense or evidence of a lasting bond?
"Creaky voice" or "vocal fry" is the new way young women talk,
according to linguistic research, and people really hate it. It's been described
as a "raspy or croaking sound injected (usually) at the end of a
sentence," and the sound of "oil popping on the pan" and also sheer
agony.
To listen to an example of "creaky voice" skip to minute 4:35 of Slate's recent podcast on the topic, below.
Then skip to 4:55 where it's described by host Bob Garfield as "annoying...really annoying."
Learn to love it, people. Researchers at Long Island University
found that two thirds of college-aged women were likely to make creaky vocal sounds
when they spoke. It's specifically attributed to upwardly mobile,
educated, urban-dwelling young American women. The "fry" itself is a
"prestigious characteristic of contemporary female speech," according to
findings by sociolinguist Barry Pennock-Speck in a 2005 study.
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