According to a study conducted by the University of Denmark, the animal uses a sonic technique where it produces low sounds by elongating syllables mimicking the celebrities.
Kim Kardashian does it. So do Scarlett Johansson and Katy Perry.
And it turns out many whales also use “vocal fry,” the deep, gravelly vocal register these celebrities and a growing number of young American women have taken up.
Except the group of animals, which includes sperm wales, orcas, dolphins and porpoises, use “vocal fry” to help find their prey, according to the paper published Thursday. The study in the journal Science found the whales, like people, have three vocal registers: a normal voice, a falsetto and that creaky fry.
“The similarities we find are really striking,” said Coen Elemans, a voice scientist at the University of Southern Denmark who led the study. “This is the first evidence of broad register use in any animal, besides humans.”
Among Americans, vocal fry can be divisive. Some find the low, guttural voice to be grating. Others warn the raspy tone makes prospective employees less hireable. Radio stations get complaints about hosts who end their sentences with the scratchy voice.
But the ranks of vocal friers are growing, particularly among younger women. Many who speak with a creak view criticism of vocal fry as sexist social policing of women’s voices. And plenty of celebrities today – including Kardashian, Johansson and Perry – often talk in that gritty register, according to Elemans.
Known as “vocal fry” in humans, the technique produces the lowest sounds by dragging out syllables.
Britney fuelled the craze by using it in her pronunciation of her debut hit Baby One More Time.
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And now the vocal fry has been identified in dolphins and killer whales, who use a similar vocal method during hunting.
Their ultrasonic echolocation clicks help them find, track and catch prey. Experts have suggested that women use the deeper tones to seem more masculine and better equipped to take on men in the workplace.
Others have described the technique as potentially “vocally damaging” as it can cause laryngeal tension and voice fatigue.
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