:Creaky voice:

A type of phonation. The vocal folds vibrate slowly and irregularly with a very low rate of airflow through the glottis. The arytenoid cartilages are pressed together and only the forward portions of the vocal folds vibrate. Creaky voice may be used as a signal of tiredness or boredom. It also occurs fairly regularly in some varieties of English (GB for example) when the speaker reaches the bottom of the voice range, for instance after a falling nuclear tone. However, the difference between creaky voice and other phonation types is contrastive in some languages. Creaky voice is symbolised with a tilde below (U+02F7) as in [ɑ̰].


Also known as vocal fry.

Click the ear icon to hear an example.