'Creaky voice' in British English

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "creaky", Anon, but creaky is not a word that pops into my mind whenever I hear a British accent.

Hello Yankee,

'Creaky' is a distinct voice quality, a method of delivery. I think some young English female newsreaders are starting to sound a bit creaky, and in so-called "Old BBC English" (in the 1950's) some people used a voice quality not too different from what would be described as a 'creaky voice'.

I think this is an important aspect for L2 speakers. If you are a female and wanna speak with an american accent, you gotta know how to use creaky voice.

Hmm, as a lifelong American, I have not noted "creaky voices" among American women speakers. Can you define what you mean by that?

For that matter, nor have I noticed it among British speakers of either ***.

I observe it everyday at work, here in Northern Calif. I did not know before that it was called creaky. As I was studying about voice qualities, and thanks to a recent article "creaky voice: a new feminine voice quality for young urban-oriented upwardly mobile american women?" that appeared in the journal American Speech. Today, I saw a woman in her 40's with that voice quality.

Do you know of a source where I could hear what you are talking about, because I suspect I don't understand what is meant by "creaky voice." I'm thinking of an old woman's creaky voice, and I suspect this means something very different.

Interesting. I have never paid attention to "creaky voice", and I didn't know exactly what it sounded like, but I looked it up on the net, and found some interesting stuff.
Here's the article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creaky_voice

And here's a short audio clip about "creaky voice"

I learned in my days of studying audiology that American women have the highest pitch accent in the English speaking world. To me a creaky voice is someone like Cindy Lauper !