creakyvoice

Creaky voice, also called creaky phonation, is a voice quality produced when the vocal folds are relatively slack and thick, causing slow and irregular vibration. The result is a rough, creaking sound with a noticeably low fundamental frequency. Creaky voice sits at a low end of the speech register and is often described as glottal fry in informal terms.

Acoustically and articulatorily, creaky voice features a low F0, irregular glottal pulses, and sometimes subharmonics. The vibratory pattern is more aperiodic than modal voice, with reduced energy in the higher harmonics and a tendency for long, uneven glottal closures. Creaky voice can occur in short segments or persist over longer stretches, and may be mixed with modal phonation in continuous speech.

In language use, creaky voice can function as a characteristic of a speaker’s voice quality and, in some languages, as a phonemic resource that contrasts with modal voice or other phonation types. Beyond phonology, it can carry social and pragmatic associations, including impressions of seriousness, grim humor, informality, or affective emphasis. Variation in its use and perception has been explored in sociolinguistic and phonetic studies, highlighting how listeners react to voice quality cues in speech.