This isn’t an age thing. I know several old fogies who sound like that including a woman in her 50s who is a professor of psychology at a large university in the UK. She sounds almost exactly like the woman in this video.
Not to stereotype but in my own experience this type of vocal fry is fairly common among a certain set of intellectuals/academics who are generally much older than this, and are most definitely not hipsters.
Basically 50.
Don’t know what to tell you. I speak a little Mandarin Chinese, and I have no trouble discerning the tones necessary to distinguish words in that language, which are sometimes pretty subtle. I’m hearing nothing at all odd about that woman’s speaking; until someone above pointed out exact sentences, I’d become convinced we weren’t talking about the same video.
If anything her fry is a very mild one, at least to me. And fellow geezers, better get used to it, as far as I can tell mild forms of both fry and final uptoning are becoming “normalized”. To be fair we’ve had broadcasters and announcers cranking up an unnatural “radio voice” since the days of, well, radio. And we know a radio announcer from the 40s does not sound like one from the 70s does not sound like one from today. What we are hearing is a “received” version of speech patterns common among younger women.
OTOH the booger nose ring can’t be unseen once seen…
Actually, I see man-buns in Hawaii that are pretty sexy. Of course, that’s because they are on husky, masculine Hawaiian guys who DO evoke Toshiro Mifune.
Know how I know you’re old? Not only are you annoyed by vocal fry, but it’s 2017 and you’re just now talking about it. That’s so 2013. Even bald, white dudes have covered this already. Everyone knows it’s a prestigious characteristic of contemporary female speech, characterizing the creaky woman as “professional,” “urban,” and “looking for her career.”
Go watch your programs, Grandpa, before you hear about Gangnam Style.
I mean I *guess *I can hear a slight difference in her voice when she said the bolded words, but it’s nothing I ever would have noticed.
When you guys were talking about vocal fry, I was thinking you meant something like this!
Now you’re just grumbling about the natural order of things (I’ve heard old people are prone to that same behavior). You know those hipster vocal fryers are going to be old codgers in a few decades, and they’ll be muttering about whatever ghastly thing the young folks are up to. It’s what we humans do.
I suppose I could get all pissy about the vocal fry thing that I can’t even hear most of the time and am not bothered by when I do hear it, but I’m too busy getting pissy about all the people who respond to your every observation and comment with “Right?” Jeebuz I’ve got two colleagues – intelligent, accomplished people – who do this in every. single. verbal. exchange.
I usually annoy easily, but TBH I probably wouldn’t have noticed her doing that if it hadn’t been pointed out to me first.
I’m 56.
I can hear it if I look for it, but hers (in the OP’s link) is not that noticeable. What is particularly annoying with that is the editing, how they took out any natural pauses and make the presentation seem rushed.
The annoying kind of vocal fry is the kind in Eyebrows of Doom’s link. That’s what the young guy that I used to work with sounded like.
I’m 50.
Yeah, listening specifically to the examples Inner Stickler pointed out, I guess I can hear something a little different, if I’m really concentrating. But that’s just the thing–I have to actively listen for it. If I’m just watching a video like I normally would, it passes by quite unnoticed.
Who do you think is sitting next to me but Olivia Gordon! That very smart pixie lady who thinks she knows everything. But what she doesn’t know is that she had this little teeny tiny ball o’ sweat right here, hangin’ off the tip of her nose! … It was just hangin’ there! It wouldn’t fall off! … Like, if she turned her head, it didn’t fall off, if she stood up, it didn’t fall off, she scratched, it didn’t fall off! … That little sweat ball just wouldn’t fall off! … So I yelled at her. I said, “Hey! Lady! Flick that sweat ball off your nose! … What are ya tryin’ to do? Make me sick?!”
Oh it was a nose ring? Never mind!
Oh, and I’m 55 and I can hear the fry. It’s not the worst example, but it’s still annoying.
I agree about the editing./Why must they do this?/Short attention spans?/People don’t know how to handle .5 seconds of silence?
This thread makes me think it’s to cut off a second or two of extra fry.
I had a young one ask me yesterday if I knew what Snapchat was.
Damn kids!!
You know they put those nose rings in the noses of cattle so you could pull on them and they will follow.
Another thing about that SciShow is that Michael Aranda kid. He talks OK enough but what is it wit that crazy hair, and those silly tribal hoop-rings in his ears? And that sloppy hoodie sweater he always wears! Looks like he’s about to go smoking the reefer behind the bleachers and listen to that grunge rock music.
Why can’t they be more like Hank Green? Hank Green is a perfectly respectable young man.
I notice her vocal fry if I listen for it, but it’s nothing like the bad “valley girl” version. It’s just there as she trails off–just like it is on male voices when they do so.
Sure, she has a particular way of speaking, but that’s nerdy girl. It’s quite similar to Sheldon’s girlfriend on Big Bang Theory. And their target audience is “Nerdfighteria,” a place that celebrates young people being nerdy. It makes sense.
I get why you might not be used to it, but not why it would be so annoying. But you aren’t alone. When she first started, the comments were full of people saying she was horrible and they should fire her. And, of course, full of people defending her.
Sure, Valley Girl is annoying, as it sounds so airheaded. But this woman sounds smart and articulate, like a scientist talking to you. I like that better than the people who sound like they spent way too much time perfecting their voice to actually know what they’re talking about.
(And, yes, I know that’s a bias, too. I know a lot of people with great voices who are intelligent. But I still like her voice better.)
And negatively commenting on body mods is just people being old, I think. I honestly never even noticed it. It does set a tone that made me want to be very defensive, though. I hope I avoided that.
Yes, but at that time, we will be right!
Michael Aranda is a dreamboat!