WEBVTT - How Does Vocal Fry Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Oh my god,

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<v Speaker 1>I know they like had to take the catapult back

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<v Speaker 1>to the rental place and she didn't even remember to

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<v Speaker 1>put the blood back and the freezer. Oh oh, hello

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<v Speaker 1>brain stuff. I'm Christian Sagar, and today we're going to

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<v Speaker 1>talk about the human voice, specifically the much discussed and

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<v Speaker 1>much reviled register of vocal fry. You've heard it, You've

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<v Speaker 1>heard people complain about it, and you're very likely used

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<v Speaker 1>to at least a little bit of yourself. I I'm

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<v Speaker 1>particularly guilty of it. You might have heard it in

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<v Speaker 1>previous episodes of this, But how does it actually work?

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<v Speaker 1>What is happening inside your throat when you fry? Human

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<v Speaker 1>beings have three main vocal registers, falsetto, modal, and vocal fry.

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<v Speaker 1>In addition to being able to whistle. The modal register

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<v Speaker 1>is what you probably think of when you imagine somebody's

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<v Speaker 1>normal speaking voice. When you speak in the modal register,

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<v Speaker 1>you use your diaphragm to push air from your lungs

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<v Speaker 1>up through your larynx and out your mouth. But on

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<v Speaker 1>the way up that air meets your vocal folds, also

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<v Speaker 1>known as your vocal chords. The vocal folds are two

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<v Speaker 1>pieces of membraneous tissue that you can manipulate in several ways.

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<v Speaker 1>You can move them together and apart, and you can draw,

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<v Speaker 1>taught or relax them all to control the pitch and

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<v Speaker 1>quality of your voice. As the air from your lungs

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<v Speaker 1>passes up through the slit between your vocal folds, called

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<v Speaker 1>the glottis, it causes the folds to vibrate like the

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<v Speaker 1>red and a clarinet or a saxophone. This vibration then

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<v Speaker 1>resonates through the cavities in your head to produce the

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<v Speaker 1>fundamental sound of your voice. The falsetto register is the

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<v Speaker 1>highest frequency register, and I'll try to do it. You've

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<v Speaker 1>probably we heard people use it when they talk to

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<v Speaker 1>babies and pets. Oh, yes, you have it. That's the

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<v Speaker 1>best I can do. In the falsetto register, you pull

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<v Speaker 1>your vocal folds tight, allowing only the edges to vibrate

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<v Speaker 1>rather than the whole folds. But the lowest vocal register

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<v Speaker 1>is the vocal fry register, and you might know it

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<v Speaker 1>as creaky voice. A characteristic feature of this type of

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<v Speaker 1>phonation is an irregular popping sound, like a big basket

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<v Speaker 1>of breaded calamari rings plopping down into a deep fryer.

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<v Speaker 1>So what causes the creaky sound of vocal fry and

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<v Speaker 1>how is it different from the modal register. Well, when

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<v Speaker 1>people talk about vocal fry, they're often combining a few

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<v Speaker 1>different types of a typical sound production, primarily slower vibration

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<v Speaker 1>and irregular or a periodic vibration. Slower vibration is what

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<v Speaker 1>might properly be called creaky voice. This is when you

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<v Speaker 1>use your vocal folds to create a sound that is

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<v Speaker 1>so low it is not perceived as a single pitched tone,

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<v Speaker 1>but as a rapid series of individual pulses. All sound

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<v Speaker 1>produced by the voice is made of a rapid series

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<v Speaker 1>of pulses, with faster vibrations leading to higher pitched sounds

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<v Speaker 1>and lower vibrations leading to lower pitches. However, there is

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<v Speaker 1>a point, let's say around seventy hurts, where the pitch

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<v Speaker 1>is so low we no longer perceive it as a

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<v Speaker 1>single continuous note, but instead start to hear each of

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<v Speaker 1>the individual pulses. The irregular or a periodic vibration is

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<v Speaker 1>another part of the vocal fry phonation, and this is

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<v Speaker 1>what some would consider vocal fry proper. This simply means

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<v Speaker 1>that the pulses don't occur at a steady rhythm, and

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<v Speaker 1>thus there is a somewhat noisy, chaotic, or apparently random,

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<v Speaker 1>popping sound within the voice. According to linguist Mark Lieberman,

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<v Speaker 1>this random or chaotic vibration is a normal part of

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<v Speaker 1>physical systems like the muscles that create human speech. If

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<v Speaker 1>we were to look inside your larynx, what we would

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<v Speaker 1>probably see during vocal fry is that the vocal cords

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<v Speaker 1>are pressed together but not stretched longitudinally, creating a loosely

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<v Speaker 1>closed glottis where breath can bubble out between the slackened

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<v Speaker 1>vocal chords, creating pulses as the vocal cords rattle. It's

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<v Speaker 1>kind of like using your vocal cords in the same

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<v Speaker 1>way you use somebody's skin when you make a motor

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<v Speaker 1>boat sound on their stomach. In recent years, vocal fry

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<v Speaker 1>has been a huge subject of debate. Is it super annoying? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>let me tell you. I will say that vocal fry

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<v Speaker 1>is nothing to panic about. Studies show that it is

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<v Speaker 1>a fairly common feature of human speech, used most often

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<v Speaker 1>right at the end of sentences or phrases. It's sort

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<v Speaker 1>of the opposite of up talk, where you raise your

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<v Speaker 1>pitch at the end of phrases as if everything were

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<v Speaker 1>a question. Some studies have shown that people are more

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<v Speaker 1>likely to use vocal fry in regular speech than in

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<v Speaker 1>sustained vowel production tests, meaning that it's likely part of

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<v Speaker 1>our learned speech patterns rather than widespread changes in laryngeal

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<v Speaker 1>health and anatomy. Check out the brainstuff channel on YouTube,

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<v Speaker 1>and for more on this and thousands of other topics,

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<v Speaker 1>visit how stuff works dot com.