Change in the prevalence of creaky voice over time in Australian English.

Abstract

Creaky voice is a linguistic feature that is perceived to have increased in prevalence in English over recent years, particularly in women's speech. However, there is limited empirical evidence for this apparent increase. Using real-time acoustic analysis, we explore whether generational change in creaky voice prevalence can be seen among teenage speakers from Sydney, Australia. We conducted a trend analysis comparing creak prevalence in the speech of 28 teenagers collected in 1989 to 21 teenagers collected 30 years later. Results provide evidence for an increase in creak prevalence over time for young female (but not male) speakers of Australian English.