"Vocal fry"

[modernwizard]

Wow, ya learn something new everyday. I didn't even know that that low, grating tone that you put on the end of words sometimes even had a name, but apparently it does. The New York Times introduced me to the subject in an article about linguistic novelty among girls. Unfortunately, it's difficult to describe vocal fry, but you know it when you hear it. Here's a Youtube commentary on vocal fry, including some examples. In my experience, vocal fry seems to be an affectation to suggest sophistication, doubt, frustration or sarcasm.

Comments

[melopoeia.livejournal.com]

I use it a bit much myself, solely to indicate sarcasm (this is why I invented a pseudo-emoticon for it that nobody else seems to use *wry*), but not in the valley girl fashion of the video.

[dollsahoy.livejournal.com]

Language Log has discussed vocal fry in a few entries recently http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=vocal+fry

As usual, LL tears apart the notion that this is a new phenomenon practiced only by the young and trendy (the NYT link is asking me to log in, but your description of it as a "linguistic novelty among girls" indicates to me that the NYT article may not have been all-encompassing on the subject...)