From the Kardashians to valley girls alike, there’s a strange phenomenon that happens to some womens’ voices nowadays… and there’s an actual phrase to describe it.  Vocal fry is defined as a “register (also known as creak, croak, popcorning, glottal fry, glottal rattle, glottal scrape, or strohbass) that is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure which will permit air to bubble through slowly with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency.” (Wikipedia)

Here’s a video below that shows exactly what this is:

Dr. Mark Liberman, an American linguist, tells us more about this “trend” of talking, and how it is taking over the millennial world.

Listen to the rest of the podcast at: http://tinyurl.com/jcmsao8

Matt talks with Dr. Mark Liberman, an expert in linguistics. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He is Faculty Master at Ware College House, Director of Linguistic Data Consortium and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Linguistics. His recent publications include: “Development of Pitch Contrast in Korean Prosody: A Corpus Study” and “Vocal Fry: ‘Creeping in’ or ‘still here’?” Dr. Liberman talks about the phenomenon of “Vocal Fry” and why it is used.