Vocal Fry Register - Vocal Fry Register in Speech

Vocal Fry Register in Speech

Discussion of vocal fry is much more frequent in books related to phonetics and speech therapy than it is in those dealing with singing. Some authorities consider the use of vocal fry in speech a dysphonia, while others consider it so only if it is used excessively. Hollien, Moore, Wendahl, and Michel make this statement:

It is simply our intent to suggest that ordinarily vocal fry constitutes one of several physiologically available types of voice production on the frequency-pitch continuum and hence, of itself, is not logically classified among the laryngeal pathologies. While the excessive use of fry could result in a diagnosis of voice disorder, this quality is too often heard in normal voices (especially in descending inflections where the voice fundamentally falls below frequencies in the modal register) to be exclusively a disorder."

This seems to be the prevailing opinion among speech pathologists today. Many are quick to point out that although vocal fry is minimally a part of routine speaking patterns, the continued use of such a pattern does not make it utilitarian nor non-pathological. Some evidence exists of vocal fry becoming more common in the speech of young female speakers of American English in the early 21st century, but the extent and significance of this is disputed. Researcher Ikuko Yuasa suggests that this tendency is a product of young women endeavoring to infuse their speech with gravitas by means of reaching for the male register.

Some languages, such as Jalapa Mazatec, use vocal fry (creaky voice) as a linguistically significant marker; that is, the presence or absence of vocal fry can change the meaning of a word.