The term ‘vocal fry’ refers to that rather croaky, slightly breathless-sounding way of talking that, in English, became widespread from the 1990s, initially particularly among younger females in the US. In US English to this day, women much more widely use vocal fry than men.
Technically, vocal fry is a low vocal register that occurs when the speaker partly closes their throat, causing the vocal cords to compress, becoming relatively compact and lowering the speaker’s voice.
Vocal fry is also present in other languages. In Finnish, the use of vocal fry can indicate that it’s someone else’s turn to talk, and in Jalapa Mazatec, a minority language from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the presence or absence of vocal fry changes the entire meaning of the word. In fact, two words that otherwise sound the same can have completely different meanings, depending on whether or not they are pronounced with vocal fry.
Perhaps because it came to be associated primarily with young women in America from the 1990s onwards, and because men are still often seen as having more authority, vocal fry in English is often interpreted as making the speaker sound weak and hesitant. But in Finland, people of both sexes who don’t use vocal fry come across as less eloquent than those that do.
Whatever you think of vocal fry, it certainly hasn’t held back Lady Gaga, whose pronouncements often bear all of its hallmark characteristics.
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/people-laughing-and-talking-outside-during-daytime-nF8xhLMmg0c
