Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it!
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as an expert correction of myths about vocal fry, showing it is a normal speech pattern across groups.
What it is
Linguist Geoff Lindsey explores vocal fry: what it is, who uses it, how it relates to glottal stops and accents, and why some people dislike it.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2024 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec qwery · 2024-09 · on “Who is responsible for the greatest change to our language? Teenage girls”
You might also be interested in Dr Geoff Lindsey's video on 'vocal fry'[0] which is a linguistic phenomenon also associated with young women (although it isn't that simple). Dr Lindsey's channel is totally bitchin' like you wouldn't believe. You'll love it! I'm sure. [0] [this video]
Recommends ggus · 2026-03 · on “TADA: Fast, Reliable Speech Generation Through Text-Acoustic Synchronization”
"Vocal fry", aka "creaky voice". It's stereotypically associated with irritating young women. I like me a good rabbit hole that's interesting and also digs into stereotypes. Turns out, like many memes, it's not just that. It's (also?) a normal speech pattern, used by different genders, ages, and social groups, in many languages. This doesn't mean that vocal fry isn't used as social signaling. But complaining about it, well, isn't that social signalling too? Geoff Lindsey - Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it! - [this video]
Cites queuebert · 2024-05 · on “OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show”
I don't find any of the OpenAI voices sexy or deferential. They sound fake happy to me, like a customer service phone menu or an elementary school teacher, and reek of Bay area vocal fry [1] and lilt. I wish there was a greater diversity of accents and speaking patterns available, such as can be seen on the Speech Accent Archive [2]. 1. [this video] 2. [LINK]