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As a linguist who has spent time in Finland and speaks the language, I feel incredibly stupid now for never noticing how pervasive vocal fry is in Finnish.

I got an ad in the middle of this that had so much vocal fry that I thought it was another example.

This made me remember a line from Terry Pratchett's books which said a character's voice sounded so posh that he was practically speaking in a modulated yawn.

I call it “smoker’s voice” but “creaky voice” sounds to my ear the most accurate.

Speech Pathologist here: Vocal fry can be used as a fluency strategy for people who stutter, especially for those who struggle with blocks. It offers additional tactile feedback with phonations and relaxes muscles involved in phonation.

Your edit of George Saunders and Bond vs Loudermilk was absolute comedy gold, Doc! Would love even more of those even by themselves at some point in the future either to illustrate concepts or just because they're funny. You have a good feel for them, clearly.

Oh no as a Finn I started sweating when Finland was mentioned.

I realize as this is 8 months old I will not likely be read. I was trying to copy vocal fry as I was listening, Then I tried to lose the fry and I realized to my shock I speak with vocal fry and find it difficult to speak without it. It's not like the extreme examples, but eradicating it I find difficult. I learned something new. 😬

As a Finnish person aware of vocal fry, I never really realised how common it was in Finnish. Only ever really paid attention to it in English.

I think part of the reason it seems to stand out more in women's voices is that men's voiced tend to be deeper, so there's less contrast between 'normal' voice and vocal fry.

Absolutely genius how you used an example of vocal fry that advocated the values of VPN use, shortly before jumping into your Private VPN advert. Chef's kiss.

I recommended this video to my voice and speech teacher! He had us watch it for class just a couple weeks later!! Your videos are always amazing, informative, and entertaining!

The one thing that bugs me about vocal fry is, once it is pointed out, it is so hard to not focus on.

This has been so eye-opening, especially the part where you mention uptalk vs. vocal fry. Looking back I’m realizing that I (young American woman) truly do use uptalk when I’m trying to sound non-threatening or unauthoritative, and I use vocal fry when I’m relaxed or even confident around the other person. In hindsight I understood how each would be perceived but only subconsciously. Until today. Phenomenal video!!! :)

This is wonderful. Please also address the upward tilt at the end of sentences that women use in speech that almost sounds like a question -- and also address the phenomenon of teen girls who talk like this: "Please leave me alone--aaaa." Or if someone tells them to do something, they'll reply, "Noooo-waaa! I don't want to do that. You're driving me crazyy-aaa."

As an American woman, neither a teenager nor rich, I must admit I never noticed this notion called "vocal fry". However, now I won't ever be able to unhear it.

I'm FInnish but also very fluent in English. After watching this, I realized I use vocal fry almost all the time when speaking in Finnish, but very little when I'm speaking English. It's mindblowing!

I was hearing it at work around 2012, and noticed something since then, that happens nearly every time. When there is 1 *_vocal-fryer_* attending a meeting with others who do *not* vocal fry, the *_non-fryers_* will start to *vocal fry,* following subconsciously the creaky lead of the vocal-fryers. It's annoying but a funny phenomenon.

I kept hearing someone referencing vocal cry and just didn't know what he was referring to. Thank you for such brilliant examples and explanations, this channel comes up often to help me polish up my linguistic understanding. Thanks!

That ending was pure gold! LOL Loved this entire video :)

As a foreigner living in Finland and who has a strong vocal fry when speaking in English, this study about the importance of vocal fry in Finnish is giving me hope 😂

When I was in university, I had a professor whose voice made it sound like he was being sarcastic about everything. He had to preface every new class by warning people that he wasn't attacking them or anyone; his voice just had that drawl and fry naturally. Watching this is incredibly enlightening.

Love this format! Many of the topics discussed here, I didn’t notice much before and I like the explanations. Greetings from Germany

A much better description of this tonal quality than I've heard elsewhere.

This was ridiculously educational about a subject I've never considered but should have.

Now that you pointed this out, I can't unhear it and it drives me nuts 🙉

Actual lol at the end with the Airbnb bit. Kudos to the laugh, and the content through and through.

I appreciate the depth and breadth of these lessons and always learn more than expected.

This is the kind of content I'm fascinated by: take something everyone has some shallow opinion about, delve deeply and seriously on it, and bring back a complete, informative content from which prejudice and pseudoscience were judiciously removed. Congratulations!

I think an important factor in Male vs Female is the difference in contrast. Men tend to have lower voices so it is easier for the gravely sound of the fry to blend in providing a percusive element, but not as noticable a change to pitch or tambour. Since women often have higher voices, the fry stands out more, both against the their individual voice, but also against expectations of what women's voice should sound like.

Good video! Very interesting, It really helped me noticed things I had never before as someone whose first language is not English. Something really interesting is that I have been asked many times by family members or friends if I already know how to talk like a native, and when I ask them what do they mean, they say that if I can talk with the “cranky sound” jajaja. Very cool video!

Thank you. This was very interesting, well researched and presented. I'm glad KZfaq suggested this video to me

This is interesting to me because, as a music-lover, I associate the term with singing. In genres such as rock, metal, jazz, musical theatre and pop, it's a strong positive point if a vocalist (regardless of gender) can use vocal fry selectively. I hadn't heard it in the context of speech, but I'm guessing this is where musicians got it from? It also clears up my confusion about the description (the bit about people hating it).

Putting the strong can exception in the sponsor section was genius, can’t believe I was actually motivated to pay attention to an ad

If there were awards for editing in KZfaq videos.... gold, pure gold!

These edits are firrre!! Loved this

Fantastic examples. As an older American woman who has lived in France for thirty years I also reacted to vocal fry in young American women with great annoyance and wished they would stop. Now I wonder why I have this reaction since it doesn't bother me in the male actors. Excellent work.

As a millennial American woman with injuries to her vocal chords, I do vocal fry sometimes but I always notice I'm doing it and feel very embarrassed about it. I got really sick as a young teenager and wound up in intensive care isolation unit with no voice at all. My trachea was moments from collapsing when I arrived at the hospital. It took months before I could talk again and years before I could shout again. I had trouble singing for two decades, often not being able to sing more than one song before my voice went out. When I go a few days without taking to people regularly (which does happen since I'm a single autistic female living alone) I lose my voice. Over the next few days while I'm trying to get it back, I'm permanently in vocal fry, but it's embarrassing because people are always asking if I just woke up, no matter what time of day it is. I have found that if I sing a lot on the days I'm alone and not talking to anyone, that helps. It's hard to remember though and to make sure I sing enough songs to prevent it. I really wish I didn't have these problems.

That was some great editing!

Thank you Dr. This is an absolute eye opener. I am an native Finnish speaker with a high level of English proficiency. I have watched your videos and I think you are right on the money. The things like rhotic-ness and pronunciation in general are really answering the hard questions in my mind about pronunciation and translitteration. Fascinating.

I watched this video because I knew the term "vocal fry" from singing. It now makes a lot more sense why it's considered bad for your voice when singing because trying to get regular resonance is generally what a classical sound is looking for. For me personally, realizing that I as a male talk with a lot of vocal fry makes me understand why people expect me to be singing the bass part when usually I am among the highest of the tenors in any given choir. It also explains why my comfortable talking "pitch" is about an octave lower than my comfortable singing pitch, and also why I have so low of notes whilst also having high notes. I know you specialize in speech phonology, but I would love to see you tackle difference between singing and talking, especially in English.

As a voiceover director, vocal fry is most annoying when the actor doesn't know they're doing it and can't stop. It's especially annoying when it's a man who's using it to sound like they have a deeper voice. Also, as a voice actor myself, I'm in the "vocal fry envy" club, because I can't do it to save my life. Sometimes it's appropriate for a specific character, and I'm not able to utilize the technique! 😅

great video! likead nad subscribed. I stumbled across it whej I should've been working and I do not regret it. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. I was curious about motive or intention. This explained the phenomenon very well.

While watching this, I had an odd thought. Traditionally, women have been expected to use a higher, brighter, and what some say is gentler voice that is not as subject to vocal fry. But using a higher pitch speaking voice has a number of issues. One is the ability to be heard by those with hearing loss. My grandfather was quite hard of hearing. If I used what we jokingly called a "kid voice", he inevitably could not hear me as well. So I spoke lower and slower which tended to manifest some fry even as a kid. Now that I'm a professional adult woman in a medical field (hospital pharmacist) I need to interact with others. I naturally have a low voice anyway (I sing tenor), but speaking with a lower voice rather than a higher pitched one has different results. A lower voice will, for good or ill, get different results from people. I'm seen as more knowledgeable when I use a deeper tone. And the deeper tone comes with some fry if I am also speaking more quietly. Using a "lecture hall/stage voice" as if I were acting or singing sans microphone, has a lot less fry for me even in my natural lower register, but who speaks like that normally? We can also use my daughter's example. When my younger one uses a higher pitched voice in her math class (where is is taking 8th grade prealgebra in 6th grade) or at her robotics team practice, the boys tease her for being a girl and not knowing as much, despite the fact that she has a higher grade in the class than they do. If she uses a lower pitched voice that tends toward a bit of fry, they take her seriously. She is 11!

This made me realize why I've hated my own voice for so long I feel like I always sound bored. Thank you, that's a 30 year burden off my head

Really interesting video that made me examine my prejudices (and reverse them).

Fascinating. Thanks for the deep and dispassionate treatment. 😊

For me as a Finn, I find fry more serious. You could see it here as well in the video, all the examples where from news shows and interviews. I think that when you start using fry in Finland you signal that you are calmer and more serious.

One of my favourite kinds of video. Packed with interesting info, brilliantly presented, and generously garnished with surprisingly funny and clever moments. Loved the ending, too!

Wow... this was a very fun thing to watch from start to end🤣

for the sample of 19:30 - 19:51 it is also good to note that the man gives the viewer a very genuine and respectful look, while the woman looks almost with a sense of disdain. anything even remotely considered to be posh can basically become annoying when people try hard as opposed to not trying at all.

I keep being amazed just how hilarious you can be while also being kinda laid-back and also still so educational

This video actually helped me normalize something about my voice that's always bothered me: when I speak louder (to be heard, since people tend to interrupt me; one of the youngest kids in a big family) my voice tends to be a bit rougher, almost deep. I first noticed this when I was like 5 and I thought I sounded like a man. This has been a source of distress for me ever since. I HATE how my voice sounds. Hearing myself in recordings makes me extremely uncomfortable. But this video helped me realize that it's just a normal aspect of my voice and not a flaw.

Airbnb written on the door in the shining made me laugh 😂 Very interesting video!

I just thought this was how people talked. Some of the examples you give are things I would never have noticed if it hadn't been first defined and then pointed out to me.

Fantastic video, well explained as always. You took me on a wild ride from “Oh, so that’s why I hate the sound of my voice” to “Everyone must hate the sound of my voice as much as I do” and to “Oh, is it because I’m British?” 😂 and finally, to “Well it’s just the way I speak, people can get over it!” 🎉 Love it. Love your work. Great vid!

As a non-native English speaker, my complaint about vocal fry is that it makes it much harder to understand what is being said. The male main actor (the father, I forgot his name) in the movie Interstellar spoke almost entirely in vocal fry and that was when I actually realized what vocal fry was. I had to turn up the volume to hear and understand what he said.

Henry Kissinger used to speak in such a low-pitched warbling croak that it needed much concentration to follow his meaning. Connotation of physical sounds seems to be a moving-target, but what seems unquestionable about this kind of voice is that it requires very little energy to produce, so becomes a convenient practice.

I must have weird ears, because I much prefer the way fry sounds to higher-pitched speech of nearly any kind... 😅Yours isn't bad to me, Dr Lindsay, I have to add. I find your breathiness nice to listen to. In contrast, hard attack bothers me particularly when it's overused in everyday speech. Thanks for the awesome and informative video! Subscribed! 🔥

I'm a native Spanish speaker that learned English at school, and I never had creaky voice, until I started to learn Mandarin, which is a tonal language, and one of it's tones is called "falling rising tone" (third tone), which is actually more frequently pronounced as a low pitch tone. The thing is that in the process of learning more and more Chinese, my pronunciation in other languages also had that "3rd tone influence" in the form of a creaky voice. So, as presented in this video, I also think people that say that "creaky voice can be detrimental to your throat" don't realize that there's a lot of tonal languages that literally require you to do it so that you can me understood. I mean, have they ever heard the ã tone in northern Vietnamese? To me sounds like a combination between creaky voice and a glottal stop, but ppl use it all the time to speak.

I think female vocal fry is easier to hear because it happens with the voice at a higher pitch, but it still has components that are about as low in frequency (the oscillation where you can hear individual "clicks" or whatever they should be called). I think vocal fry blends in better with the low frequencies it happens at in men, which are also frequencies that people have more difficulty making out details in. (For example, in the logarithmic scale common in music at least, humans have less frequency resolution with lower pitches, instead apparently judging pitch more linearly for low pitches. Also, it's pretty intuitive why time resolution is lower or difficult to get high with lower frequencies, since the waves are longer individually.)

As a singer and linguist, I applaud these videos which are fascinating. Thank you.

This was extremely informative. For those who speak French, François Pérusse makes fun of vocal fry in a skit where the speaker keeps hesitating with uh, and uhm and errs and gets stuck on the fry tone until someone comments that someone forgot to shut off a lawn mower outside.😅

I always associated vocal fry with running out of breath. When I played the trumpet and I would run out of breath I would often do similar things to the flow of air that would cause a creaky voice. I feel that if you ask someone who does not have vocal fry to speak for a very long time without taking a new breath you will hear it. People can you vocal fry in order to use less air volume to speak, as it takes a lot of air to avoid the transition in glottal stops (you use air to keep the vocal folds completely separated).

This is an interesting concept to me because as a non-native speaker, I wasn't aware of this term or the negative associations that people seem to have with it, but I was aware the moment it was mentioned that this is something I could relate to. My speech always has this creaking voice quality to it, regardless of the language I'm speaking. I had also, on some level figured that this was because my voice had a low tone in general, and it was fascinating to find out that the negative associations are often paired with a higher tone.

This is my first time visiting your channel. I’ve always been interested in language, so when this video showed up, I clicked the button. I’m very glad that I did! The first advertisement had a man speaking with a VERY creaky voice. Continuously. I found his voice so irritating, it made me hold my breath. I could hardly wait for the countdown so that I could skip the ad. I don’t think that I’ve noticed creaky voice before. Now I can’t unhear it. I had noticed the up talking for a while. It would make me a bit angry, wondering why the person speaking kept asking me questions or asking for my permission. Thanks to you, I realize that it is a speech pattern. I’ll have more patience……. but I don’t know about creaky voice 😅 Good to meet you Dr. Lindsey. New subscriber

Man… that was literally the smoothest ad transition I’ve ever seen.

You can literally feel the hundreds of hours of research that go into every one of these videos, thank you!

This made me happy. What a wonderful video! 👏👏👏

I remember being in middle school and making some new friends at camp. I couldn't place the difference, but I did like the way they talked. It sounded cool, relaxed, approachable and inspired. When I brought it home I thought no one would notice, but my mother noticed and questioned me about it.

Something just clicked in my brain. I'm autistic, which - in verbal communication - results in relatively flat affect. I also have quite a bit of vocal fry naturally. And I'm well studied on a great many topics and love sharing knowledge with people. People used to think of me as some pompous asshole who thinks he's better than everyone for most of my childhood and teen years and even sometimes throughout my adult life so far. It just occured to me when you were talking about the psychological implications in the listeners' mind, that the vocal fry added to the "know-it-all" image when I was younger and as I grow older and better at communicating not just on the rational plane but also the emotional and interpersonal ones, it's working to my benefit more and more as people interpret wisdom into it. Very interesting video I randomly stumbled upon there, thank you!

Thanks so much for a great talk! I'm a retired speech therapist. I'm surprised that one thing you didn't mention is how the natural pitch differences between men and women play into the phenomenon of vocal fry. Is reached at the very bottom of one's pitch range--below it, actually, since it's the point at which the individual cannot maintain true phonation. The female pitch range averages about an octave above men's. Females are more likely to lower their pitch toward a male's level, especially in business and professional environments, and are therefore more prone to vocal fry. To the extent that a male might try to elevate his stature by lowering his pitch, vocal fry becomes more likely. In the clip where you alternated between the man and woman reciting the Gettysburg address, I was struck by how close their general vocal pitches were. Finally, I think vocal fry is more noticeable in female voices because of the pitch factor, whereas George Sanders, say, who has a deep voice even for a male, has a fry that sounds almost like a natural extension of his low range.

Brilliant as always, thank you

I love vocal fry. Something approaching an ASMR trigger for me. Which is interesting since it seems there is a close correlation between things which trigger ASMR in people who experience it and sounds which irritate those who don't.

I was just going to watch for like 2 minutes to get some examples of this, but ended up watching the entire thing.

My theory about the annoyance factor is that since vocal fry sounds like it comes from the very back/bottom of a person's throat, and the majority of women have higher-pitched voices, the clear pitch change from one to the other is what makes it sound intentional, affected, and annoying. Whereas, a lower-voiced woman or in male speakers, there is much less pitch-variation when switching from normal voice to fry voice so it barely registers on our mental radar. Regardless, I find the whole subject fascinating!

omg this video was so good!! unexpectedly hilarious!

When we were children we used the to speak to each other in a Deep croaky voice by breathing in slowly as we spoke. Essentially it was entire sentences in what you are calling vocal fry, so perhaps in the example you have here the people are breathing out much softer at the end of their sentences.

Top notch as usual. When the topic is related to some kind of prejudice people have towards one kind of speech or another, you do an excellent job of introducing and explaining the concept in a way that might reach the people that hold those views and have them think about why they have them. I'd also like to add something regarding the "disinterested" perception of vocal fry. I'm American and I distinctly remember, around when my classmates and i started puberty, other boys would do this to try and artificially deepen their voices and to project a sense of cool aloofness. So perhaps there are adult men who still connect vocal fry with the the "cool guy" that they disliked in middle school who intentionally added that feature to his speech.

You really go the extra mile to educate people on the difference between facts and opinions, and from my limited experience, it is always an uphill battle. Another great video, Geoff!

If I ever catch myself doing this I will correct it . I’m also trying to not say “mmm” between every word I say . So far so good ❤

Fascinating, instructive and funny video, thank you ! I'm trying to think if this exists in French, I'll try to pay attention !

As a English 2nd Language speaker, I never noticed vocal fry before. Now that you mentioned it and blast through plenties of extreme examples I can't unhear it anymore 😂😂

If you ever decide to do a follow up on this you may want to ask a voice pathologist who works with singers their opinion! At least among the low-bass community it is generally acknowledged that frequently practicing fry is actually GOOD for your voice and one of the best/only ways to extend your range. Being extremely proficient/practiced in vocal fry is also basically a prerequisite for a technique used by some bassists called "subharmonics" which essentially ARE fry, but can sound if anything LESS creaky than "chest voice" for the same given note. (See JD Sumner slides versus octave drops.)

A brilliantly researched and unbiased video. The clips you included are fantastic! Subscribed.

As a singer, one point I was surprised not to hear in the discussion of male vs female vocal fry is how the difference in pitch between male and female voices changes the frequency of the 'fry'. Vocal fry is done near the bottom end of one's voice (frequency of flap vibrations equating to pitch after all) and so if I, a bass singer, try to talk in vocal fry it ends up so deep it's inaudible in a noisy context. Howevera soprano or metzo voice talking in vocal fry still has the main tonal component of the fry in the center of the range of human speech. That would be my guess as to why women are 'better' at fry then men generally.

You somehow awakened an annoyance I didn’t know I had within a minute of this video starting. I am impressed

My sisters and I accidentally discovered vocal fry, while joking around--and called it "creepy syrup". Years later I found out it's an actual thing and now I'm learning much more about it. Thanks!!

As a rock/metal fan, I'm mostly familar with vocal fry as a type of vocal distortion used by many vocalists in those musical styles. Never noticed it in normal speech before.

Never heard of this. Thank you.

👏 The Loudermilk clip edits were pure gold! Great video!

Just goes to show much of our communication is not words alone, but their tone, frequency, and volume too. Language is incredibly interesting. Thanks for lifting the curtain for me.

I have a physical disability that has a mild effect on my speech although it should be immediately recognizable by any English speaking speech pathologist. It is seldom recognized by anyone else. This video goes a long way in explaining some of the extreme hostility to my voice that I have experienced! I speak with noticeably more vocal fry than is typical. Mystery solved after only 68 years. Thank you.

I am a non-native speaker of English and I find it difficult to produce vocal fry sounds. That aside, I've noticed that vocal fry seems to make speech less expressive, or, in other words, very monotonous, similar to the topics young people tend to talk about (like this or like that). I appreciate your breathy pronunciation for the way you exquisitely manipulate your voice. Speakers' diction seems to be affected by the dominance of fry sounds. Perhaps you should consider addressing this issue in your future videos. Looking forward to watching them.

My daughter and I both have an autoimmune disease that damages the esophagus. Both of us have vocal fry, but her's came on suddenly and dramatically. It drove her crazy, so she went to an ENT and had her vocal cords examined. They're inflamed, covered in polyps, and permanently damaged. This is now the way she talks and that will never end. Although I've never had my vocal cords specifically damaged, my esophagus is examined regularly and definitely has scarring, chronic inflammation, and even has an aneurism (like a 'bubble' in the wall). I have no doubt that this disease is what destroyed my ability to sing all those years ago. I know that autoimmune disease is horribly underdiagnosed, but now I wonder if sudden onset of vocal fry could be an early symptom.

I've spent a number of years in broadcasting and audiobook narration and what I've noticed with a lot of men who try book narration especially, is that they are attempting to artificially force their voice into a deeper register in order to sound lower and more resonant, and they use glottal or vocal fry (also known as glottal pulse) to accomplish that. A deeper voice tends to register with the listener as more authoritative, but the problem they face is that they focus more on artificially deepening their voice rather than placing emphasis where it belongs, on delivery, which is vastly more important.

my college had a speaker who wasint even 30 and his voice to me sounded like a comic book like trying to fry all the way up everything. then I learned he was a director of some big department at spacex and yea now I coppy it for interviews. works great.

Glad you mentioned "Up talk" cause I was getting ready to ask about "Sexy Baby Up talk" as I had heard it referred to - some of these things are impossible not to notice once you have heard lectures like this - thanks and God Bless