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Pronunciation: Make a speech purist cry – try vocal fry

 

Rebecca Armstrong
Friday 02 March 2012 01:00 GMT
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Kim Kardashian is guilty of the vocal fry
Kim Kardashian is guilty of the vocal fry (EPA)

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Will you be frying tonight? Britney, Kim Kardashian and her coven and K$sha (her keyboard clumsiness, not mine) will be. I'm not talking about the oil-based cooking technique. Instead, I refer to the "vocal fry", a non-fattening and newly identified way of speaking that is, apparently, big with young women in the US.

Late last year, America's Science journal reported on a New York study that showed vocal fry – the drawling, vibrating, drawing out of words in phrases such as "no waaaaaay" and "oh my gaaaaaahhhd" – was well on its way to becoming a language fad, rather than a speech disorder, which it had once been considered.

Britters, Kim and K$sha are all guilty of the vocal fry in their songs/speech, but if you still haven't got a handle on it, check out this helpful video demo ind.pn/vocalfry by a funny lady frying as if her life depended on it.

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