Donald Duck talk

Donald Duck talk, formally called buccal speech, is an alaryngeal form of vocalization which uses the inner cheek to produce sound rather than the larynx.[1][2][3][4] The speech is most closely associated with the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck whose voice was created and performed by voice actor Clarence Nash, and by Tony Anselmo after Nash's death in 1985.[5][6]

Nash discovered buccal speech while trying to mimic his pet goat Mary. In his days before Disney, Nash performed in vaudeville shows where he often spoke in his "nervous baby goat" voice. Later when he auditioned at Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney interpreted Nash's voice as that of a duck, at which point the idea for Donald Duck came about.[7] Buccal speech was also used by voice actor Red Coffee for the character Quacker in MGM cartoons, and by Jimmy Weldon for the character Yakky Doodle in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

The distinctive sound of buccal speech and the widespread familiarity of Donald Duck have led to unrelated, but similarly distorted forms of modified speech being described as "Donald Duck talk", such as inhaling helium.[citation needed]

Production

Buccal speech is created with one of the buccal or cheek sides of the vocal tract. Both the air chamber and the replacement glottis are formed between the cheek and upper jaw. Buccal speech is produced when a person creates an airbubble between the cheek and the jaw on one side and then uses muscular action to drive the air through a small gap between or behind the teeth into the mouth. The sound so produced makes a high rough sound. This then is articulated to make speech.[1][2] The speech sounds made in this way are difficult to hear and have a raised pitch. The technique can be also be used to sing,[1] and is usually acquired as a taught or self learnt skill and used for entertainment.

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Hyperbaric speech

Speech made when breathing helium gas is often called Donald Duck talk. This gas mixture alters sound waves due to its low weight and density. This raises the resonating frequency of the vocal cords by an octave shift up. Such speech is unintelligible largely due to the upward pitch shift in speech formants.[8] Intelligibility is an important communication problem in deep sea diving. The technological solution involves unscrambling by electronic transcoders.[9]

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Other cases

  • Donald Duck-like speech is described to occur after pseudobulbar dysarthria in which speech gains a high-pitched "strangulated" quality.[10][11][12]
  • Donald Duck speech effect is described (usually as an undesired phenomena) in audio engineering when speech is time compressed, rate controlled, or accelerated.[13]
  • The term is sometimes also used to refer to the frequency-shifted speech from an improperly tuned single sideband modulation (SSB) radiotelephone receiver, or the (nearly unintelligible) sound of a SSB signal on a conventional amplitude modulation (AM) receiver. [14]
  • A high pitched nasal voice resembling Donald Duck is sometimes noted in individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome.[15]
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See also

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Notes

  1. ^ a b c Weinberg, B; Westerhouse, J (1971). "A study of buccal speech". Journal of speech and hearing research 14 (3): 652–8. PMID 5163900. 
  2. ^ a b Van Gilse PHG. (1948). Another Method of Speech Without Larynx. Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 36, Supplement 78, 109 – 110. doi:10.3109/00016484809122642
  3. ^ Diedrich WM. Youngstrom KA. (1966). Alaryngeal Speech. Springfield, Ill.: Thomas OCLC 347249
  4. ^ Weinberg B,(1972). Acoustical Properties of Alaryngeal Speech. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 52,(1A) 158 doi:10.1121/1.1981983
  5. ^ Bleile KM. (2003). Manual of articulation and phonological disorders: infancy through adulthood. Cengage Learning ISBN 978-0-7693-0256-0 page 67
  6. ^ Smith BL. (1994). "Speech production, Atypical aspects," pp. 4221-4231 in The encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Ed. R. E. Asher. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0-08-035943-4
  7. ^ Blitz, Marcia (1979). Donald Duck. New York: Harmony Books. p. 19. ISBN 0-517-52961-0. 
  8. ^ Fant G, Lindquist J. (1968). Pressure and gas mixture effects on diver’s speech. Quart. Prog. and Status Rep. STL-QPSR, pp. 7–17Speech Transmission Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
  9. ^ Golden RM. (1966). Improving naturalness and intelligibility of helium–oxygen speech using vocoder techniques. J Acoust Soc Am;40: 621–4. doi:10.1121/1.1910127
  10. ^ Mihailoff GA, Briar C. (2005). Nervous System. Elsevier Health Sciences. ISBN 978-0-323-03443-2 page 200
  11. ^ Bornales DP. Mental Status Exam and Cranial Nerves
  12. ^ Wills A. (2008). How to perform a neurological examination. Medicine, 36: 515-519 doi:10.1016/j.mpmed.2008.07.008
  13. ^ Kemp JE. (1975). Planning and producing audiovisual materials Crowell. ISBN 978-0-690-00805-0 page 160
  14. ^ "What Is Single Sideband". 
  15. ^ Couper, RT; Couper, JJ (2000). "Prader-Willi syndrome". Lancet 356 (9230): 673–5. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02617-9. PMID 10968453. 
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External sources

Instructional
Historical
YouTube has many examples of amateurs doing buccal speech
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Last modified on 21 November 2012, at 10:58