Vocal fry:
The vocal fry register (also known as pulse register, laryngealization, pulse phonation, creaky voice, creak, croak, popcorning, glottal fry, glottal rattle, glottal scrape) is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure that permits air to bubble through slowly with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency. During this phonation, the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together, which causes the vocal folds to compress rather tightly and become relatively slack and compact. This process forms a large and irregularly vibrating mass within the vocal folds that produces the characteristic low popping or rattling sound when air passes through the glottal closure. The register (if well controlled) can extend far below the modal voice register, in some cases up to 8 octaves lower, such as in the case of Tim Storms who holds the world record for lowest frequency note ever produced by a human, a G−7, which is only 0.189 Hz, inaudible to the human ear. [Wikipedia]
Hmmmm. A cheap shortcut to social prestige, eh? Noted in “Young women are criticized for this vocal tic — but it helps whales survive,” Dino Grandoni, WaPo:
Kim Kardashian does it. So does Scarlett Johansson and Katy Perry.
And it turns out many whales also use “vocal fry,” the deep, gravelly vocal register these celebrities and a growing number of young American women have taken up.
Except the group of animals, which includes sperm whales, orcas, dolphins and porpoises, use “vocal fry” to help find their prey, according to the paper published Thursday. The study in the journal Science found the whales, like people, have at least three vocal registers: A normal voice, a falsetto and that creaky fry.
