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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation or, vocal fry or glottal fry), is a special kind of phonation
Phonation

Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration....
 in which the arytenoid cartilage
Arytenoid cartilage

The arytenoid cartilages are a pair of small three-sided pyramids which form part of the larynx, to which the vocal cords are attached.Each is pyramidal in form, and has three surfaces, a base, and an apex....
s in the larynx
Larynx

The larynx , colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the vertebrate trachea and sound production....
 are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds
Vocal folds

The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx....
 are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact. They vibrate irregularly at 20–50 pulses per second, about two octaves below the frequency of normal voicing, and the airflow through the glottis
Glottis

The glottis defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds ....
 is very slow.






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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, creaky voice (sometimes called laryngealisation, pulse phonation or, vocal fry or glottal fry), is a special kind of phonation
Phonation

Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration....
 in which the arytenoid cartilage
Arytenoid cartilage

The arytenoid cartilages are a pair of small three-sided pyramids which form part of the larynx, to which the vocal cords are attached.Each is pyramidal in form, and has three surfaces, a base, and an apex....
s in the larynx
Larynx

The larynx , colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the vertebrate trachea and sound production....
 are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds
Vocal folds

The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx....
 are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact. They vibrate irregularly at 20–50 pulses per second, about two octaves below the frequency of normal voicing, and the airflow through the glottis
Glottis

The glottis defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds ....
 is very slow. However, although creaky voice may occur with very low pitch, as at the end of a long intonation unit, it can occur with any pitch.

A slight degree of laryngealisation, occurring e.g. in some Korean
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
 consonants is called "stiff voice
Stiff voice

The term stiff voice describes the pronunciation of consonants with a glottal opening narrower, and the vocal cords stiffer, than what occurs in modal voice....
".

The Danish
Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
 prosodic
Prosody (linguistics)

In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress , and intonation of connected speech . Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of a speaker; whether an utterance is a statement, a question, or a command; whether the speaker is being ironic or sarcastic; emphasis, contrast, and focus ; or othe...
 feature stød
Stød

St?d is a suprasegmental unit of Danish language phonology, which in its most common form is a kind of creaky voice , but may also be realized as a glottal stop, above all in emphatic pronunciation....
 is an example of a form of laryngealisation that has a phonemic
Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
 function.

Creaky voice manifests itself in the idiolect
Idiolect

An idiolect is a Variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of word selection, vocabulary and word lexicon, grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or pronunciations that are unique to that individual....
s of some American English
American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
 speakers, particularly at the beginnings of sentences that the speaker wishes to "soft-pedal" . Although this phenomenon is in general more prominent among female American English speakers than among male speakers, it is frequently adopted by older males in leadership positions in business and politics .

It can also occur accidentally when the speaker's throat is tired, or if the speaker is sick, and tries to reach very high notes.

Examples

You can hear examples of women featuring creaky voice in their speech on the site http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=9198 (at about 1:47 into the clip)

See also

  • Human Voice
    Human voice

    The human voice consists of sound Voice production by a human being using the vocal folds for Speech communication, singing, Laughter, crying, screaming, etc....