My generation spoke normally as teens and young adults. The next gang to come along started ending sentences as though they were questions? Or as though there was another thought coming? Which there wasn’t? And kids today have introduced creak, or vocal fry: a descent to gravel at the end of a sentence.
Actually, it seems to be females only who are creaking. But that’s just in the US. Apparently in the UK it’s the dudes who fry. So, clearly, it’s a cultural phenomenon. And clearly it’s an element of communication.
What is it meant to convey?
I tend to think the tone of communication matters tremendously. Its the only element of human speech dogs really need to understand in order to get along with us.
Accordingly, in those sentences that ended with questions I always heard uncertainty, insecurity. I once had an editor who talked like that, and I had NO IDEA whether to believe her words (“I think we should exchange chapter two and seven.”) or her tone (“But I’m not sure — is that dumb? Is it? Is it dumb?”). I found it agonizing to talk to her on the phone.
So what signal do we send when we drop into the basement of speech?The investigators found it common in young female DJs, as well as groups of college women.
Presumably, there’s a group-identity element: If you creak, you’re in the club.
But also presumably, there’s a signal-sending element. My brain receives creak as a signal of low effort — a body too weary, unmotivated, or disdainful to push out the final words with gusto. Or perhaps an unwillingness to commit to a statement, as the question-ending: I started a forceful assertion, but I don’t want you to think I’m too serious…
The creak drives me CRAZY. But I’m so glad to have a word for it at last.