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 The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal inlet is about ...

. also published as The speech is most closely associated with the Disney cartoon character,

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

, whose voice was created by

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...

, who performed it from 1934 to 1984. Nash discovered buccal speech while trying to mimic his pet goat Mary. In his days before Disney, Nash performed in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

shows where he often spoke in his "nervous baby goat" voice. Later when he auditioned at Walt Disney Productions,

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

interpreted Nash's voice as that of a duck, at which point the idea for Donald Duck came about. Buccal speech was also used by voice actor

Red Coffey Merle Herman Coffman, better known by his stage name Red Coffey (April 24, 1923 – August 1, 1988), was an American voice actor and comedian known for playing Quacker in the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio f ...

for the character Quacker in MGM cartoons, and by

Jimmy Weldon Jimmy Weldon (born Ivy Laverne Shinn, September 23, 1923) is an American retired voice actor, ventriloquist, and former television host. He is best known as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yakky Doodle and the host and ventrilo ...

for the character

Yakky Doodle Yakky Doodle is a cartoon duck created by Hanna-Barbera Productions for the 1961 series ''The Yogi Bear Show''. Yakky's name is a spoof of "Yankee Doodle". History Yakky Doodle (voiced by Jimmy Weldon using the same buccal speech technique used ...

in Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Production

Buccal speech is created with one of the buccal or

cheek The cheeks ( la, buccae) constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear. "Buccal" means relating to the cheek. In humans, the region is innervated by the buccal nerve. The area between the inside ...

sides of the

vocal tract The vocal tract is the cavity in human bodies and in animals where the sound produced at the sound source (larynx in mammals; syrinx (biology), syrinx in birds) is filtered. In birds it consists of the Vertebrate trachea, trachea, the Syrinx (bio ...

. 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

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. The speech sounds made in this way are difficult to hear and have a raised pitch. The technique can also be used to

sing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, and is usually acquired as a taught or self-learned skill and used for entertainment.

Other cases

* Donald Duck-like speech is described to occur after pseudobulbar dysarthria in which speech gains a high-pitched "strangulated" quality. * Donald Duck speech effect is described (usually as an undesired phenomenon) in

audio engineering Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound * Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum * Digital audio, representation of sou ...

when speech is time compressed, rate controlled, or accelerated. * The term is sometimes also used to refer to the frequency-shifted speech from an improperly tuned

single-sideband modulation In radio communications, single-sideband modulation (SSB) or single-sideband suppressed-carrier modulation (SSB-SC) is a type of modulation used to transmit information, such as an audio signal, by radio waves. A refinement of amplitude modul ...

(SSB) radiotelephone receiver, or the (nearly unintelligible) sound of a SSB signal on a conventional

amplitude modulation Amplitude modulation (AM) is a modulation technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In amplitude modulation, the amplitude (signal strength) of the wave is varied in proportion to ...

(AM) receiver. * A high pitched nasal voice resembling Donald Duck is sometimes noted in individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome.

Notes

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External links

Donald Duck--What's My Line
Clarence C. Nash can be seen in this 12 December 1954 episode making his Donald Duck talk briefly at 7.01-03, 7.18, and 7.20
(Part 1/2)(Part 2/2)
Interview with Tony Anselmo Human voice Phonation Vocal skills Donald Duck

Production

Other cases

See also

Notes

External links