A NEW trend has emerged in the way young women speak and it has speech therapists worried.

'Creaking', also known in the US as 'vocal fry', is when a woman lowers her voice so much that you can hear each individual vibration of the vocal folds.

The habit has become common among young female women, although it isn't clear why.

Professor Andrew Butcher from Flinders University has a few theories.

"It used to be the case that it was breathy voice that was thought to be attractive in a woman. That was the sexy, attractive type of voice quality and now it seems to be the opposite," he said.

"Breathy voice is not closing your vocal folds properly and creaky voice is not opening them properly.

"I don't know whether it's a question of wanting to sound more authoritative, more masculine or more attractive. I'm not a young woman so I can't say. Who knows how these things start."