creaky voice (was Re: "Method Air" (1995))

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 2/17/06, Bapopik at aol.com <Bapopik at aol.com> wrote:
> _http://espn.go.com/_ (http://espn.go.com/)
> Jacobellis fell grabbing some "method air" on the second-to-last  jump.

That would be the unfortunate Lindsey Jacobellis, whose
method-air-grabbing cost her the gold medal in the new event of
snowboard cross. I noticed Jacobellis has that creaky phonation so
prevalent among young American women. NBC has a couple of short
interview clips with her at:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html
click on "snowboarding" and scroll to bottom for videos, or use these
direct links:
http://tinyurl.com/8rzse
http://tinyurl.com/9d4v6
(Her post-race interview with Bob Costas isn't up yet, but should be
there tomorrow.)

Jacobellis is from Stratton, Vt., FWIW. But I'd guess creaky voice is
common among female snowboarders regardless of regional background.


--Ben Zimmer

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