Glottal Squeaks in VC Sequences

This paper reports results related to the phenomenon referred to as a “glottal squeak” (coined by [1]). At present, nothing is known about the conditioning and the articulation of this feature of speech. Our qualitative acoustic analyses of the conditioning of squeaks (their frequency of occurrence, duration, and f0) found in Aberystwyth English and Manchester English suggest that squeaking may be a result of intrinsically tense vocal fold state associated with thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle recruitment [2] required for epilaryngeal constriction and vocal-ventricular fold contact (VVFC) needed to produce glottalisation [3]. In this interpretation, we hypothesise that squeaks occasionally occur during constriction disengagement: at the point when VVFC suddenly releases but the TAs have not yet fully relaxed. Extralinguistic conditioning identified in this study corroborates findings reported by [1]: females are more prone to squeaking and the phenomenon is individual-dependent.