Creaky voice (was: Northwest dialect-creaky voice)

[Damien Hall]

Dale and dInIs wrote:

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In our work in southeastern Michigan, we have tentaitvely conclued
that the  more creaky voice (in women), the more advancement in the
Northern Cities Shift. We think there is no cause and effect between
the two, but that they are both related to gender, class, and
perhgpas even more individualistic characteristics of identity.

dInIs



>The Seattle-Post Intelligencer article on NW dialect makes the claim that
>creaky voice is used in the NW to compensate for a lost vowel !
>(The cot-caught
>merger).   I've been dealing with creaky voice in my classes for years when
>oral presentations are given and among actors in NJ.  I never thought of it as
>being a regional feature, but I do think it's more common among women, though
>not limited to them. Does anyone know more about this?  I heard
>Natalie Portman
>on Live at the Actor's Studio and in the movie Garden State, and she speaks
>this way a lot.
>
>Dale Coye
>Wilton,NH

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Creaky voice in women is also part of what Bill Labov calls the Philadelphia
voice qualifier.  Exactly what constitutes the qualifier is slightly mysterious
even to him, I think, but there is no doubt that there is something beyond the
Philadelphia vowel system that can contribute to making a
Philadelphia-born-and-bred woman's speech even more distinct than it would have
been anyway, and creaky voice is sometimes a big part of that.  (Not all women
who are clearly identifiable as Philadelphians from their vowels have creaky
voice.)  In some people whose vowels I have attempted to measure, the creaky
voice is so prevalent a feature that it makes it difficult to distinguish F2.
Of course, it also spreads beyond the strict Philadelphia region into
neighbouring areas of NJ;  I've heard it in people from NJ whose nearest big
city is Philadelphia, as you would expect.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania