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

Hannah White; Joshua Penney; Felicity Cox

doi:10.1121/10.0039080

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

Hannah White, Joshua Penney, Felicity Cox

Department of Linguistics

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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.

Original language	English
Article number	095201
Pages (from-to)	095201-1-095201-7
Number of pages	7
Journal	JASA Express Letters
Volume	5
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0039080
Publication status	Published - 3 Sept 2025

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Copyright the Author(s) 2025. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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10.1121/10.0039080Licence: CC BY

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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.",

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

Abstract

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ARC - Future Fellowships: Multicultural Australian English: The new voice of Sydney

Cite this

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

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

ARC - Future Fellowships: Multicultural Australian English: The new voice of Sydney

Cite this