Abstract
In a wide-reaching study of creaky voice in British English (Henton and Bladon, 1988) it was indicated that use of creaky voice varied significantly according to sex and accent of speakers, as well as with utterance position. Specifically, males used between three and ten times as much creaky voice as did females. Accentual differences were also found: Speakers of Modified Northern were more polarized in the overall amounts of creak used than were RP speakers. Individual speakers varied considerably in their use of creak, with a number of males being persistent creakers. In addition, creaky voice was shown to be an “end-of-utterance” phenomenon, used by females and males in a demarcative function. Further research using data from American English and from French indicates that creaky voice may be employed as a sociophonetic marker across cultures. Indeed, its role as a marker of male speech may be enhanced in certain cultures where gender-role expectations are more pronounced. The demarcative intonational function is observed again cross linguistically. This phenomenon, coupled with Hyman's (1988) recent results for West African languages, may make intonational creaky voice a candidate for a phonetic universal.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
