Suprasegmental aspects
Voice quality
Voice quality
Voice quality can be used to express (often subconscious) feelings, or a personal style of talking.
Other voice qualities may indicate a vocal pathology, or more widespread motor speech disorder.
Creaky voice or glottal fry
This is a very low frequency voice and has a distinct 'creak' or sounds like something frying and sizzling in a hot pan.
This is often employed by speakers, but may be negatively rated by listeners, especially if the speaker is female.
'Hello. This is creaky voice' / h̰ḛ.l̰ə̰ʊ̰ / / ð̰ɪ̰s ɪ̰z̰ kɹ̰ḭ.kḭ v̰ɔɪ̰s /
Note that only voiced consonants and vowels have the subscript tilda diacritic, as voice quality does not apply to voiceless segments.
Creaky voice (cis male)
Typical voice (cis male)
- Note the lower pitch of creaky voice (my usual pitch is 100-120 Hz and the readout here is 88 Hz).
- There is also considerable jitter and shimmer on the creaky voice sample.
- The formant frequencies are much more defined on typical voice.