SMALL PRINTS:ACCENTS EVOLVE and vocabulary morphs, but does the way we actually use sound in our speech change? According to a new American study, yes.
They’ve identified that “vocal fry” – the lowest form of vocal register and formerly categorised as a speech disorder – has become more prevalent in young female Americans, particularly when speaking to each other.
Vocal fry is a creaking sound, often prevalent at the end of sentences. This new study at the Long Island University in New York will report in The Journal Of Voice that two-thirds of their sample group exhibited it. Britney Spears is presented as an example of someone who uses it in her singing voice. “I don’t know of any work on it in Ireland, but people from abroad think that Irish women have quite deep voices,” says Feargal Murphy, a lecturer in linguistics at UCD.
“The key point is that the depth of a voice is both biological and sociological,” Murphy says.
“As a man, I may make my voice deeper in some cultures to appear more masculine. If you’ve got a cultural marker, that higher or lower equals feminine or masculine.
“In America, what they’re saying in this study is that American girls are taking on this particular vocal aspect to identify themselves as different.
“They seem to just be noticing it now, but it may always have been around. If someone gets identified in the media as doing it then it is noticed more. It’s just like the word “like” in Ireland.
"That word has always been used here, but as soon as someone said that it's used a lot in Friends, people claimed that that's why more people use it."
