The Linguistic Phenomenon Du Jour: Vocal Fry

What's the News: Rarely has a humble little sound aroused such interest as in the last few days, as a paper about a phenomenon called vocal fry, a creak in someone's voice as they speak, has been propelled to web prominence. Though many outlets got some basicfacts wrong---the new study doesn't actually show that fry has become more common among young women, just that it was common in the small group surveyed---all recognized the opportunity to launch into something we wish we knew more about: why we make funny sounds when we talk. How the Heck: