Depends how the vocal cords are damaged. Anything ranging from no noise at all to still being able to talk but sounding gravelly or raspy or just extremely quiet
Depends on the day. Sometimes not much sound comes out even when I try. Other days I can speak but it’s raspy and I don’t manage entire sentences.
In fact the doctor I saw just last week said “You sound husky and I’m only catching every other word you say. Is this a good day or a bad one?” – it’s about an average day for me.
The sounds produced by damaged vocal cords vary widely, some folks can only whisper while others manage raspy murmurs or even guttural growls before their words trail off, all depending on the severity of the damage and how well they’re able to breathe and control airflow through their stricken vocal mechanism…
Try doing some vocal exercises and warm-ups every day to keep those cords in shape. Seek out a speech therapist who can give you personalized tips on improving your voice.
Stay strong, your unique tone is part of what makes you, you!
I have mild vocal cord damage, so im a bit familiar with the topic.
Damage from something like smoking/vocal polyps/ etc. will mainly give you a gravelly, raspy and husky voice and can limit your vocal range and vocal ability. Your voice is much more easily fatigued, you can’t talk for long periods of time or else you will get even more hoarse and hard to understand, and vocal cords can feel tired or sore. It imitates the same inflammation that happens when someone is sick, so people like this can sound like they’re sick constantly. Throat clearing or coughing will increase as the body’s natural response to the inflammation. The voice will sound strained and harsh, due to the extra force and effort it takes to speak with damaged vocal cords. Vocal fry may develop, due to laryngeal fatigue (the vocal cords struggling to maintain a consistent pitch, so dropping into the fry-register can feel easier.)
Damage from blunt trauma or direct injury such as.. I don’t know, someone very aggressively prodding your vocal chords with a knife, you may lose more vocal ability and you may only be able to let out a harsh and extremely hoarse whisper, similar to if you have a very severe case of strep throat. Or you may not be able to whisper, you may only be able to let out short bursts of sound. Damaged vocal cords often will “cut off” your sound, not sure how to explain this, but the voice will break mid-sentence or mid-sound and go silent. For example if the doctor tells them to say say “ahhhhhhhhh” their vocal cords might fail in the middle of it, so they will only say “ahhh-“ and the rest will be croaky gurgly sounds. The person will be very quiet and struggle to be loud. The voice will sound unstable, raspy, muffled (not crisp and clear to understand) and may even sound guttural.
Guttural sounds are a vocal quality characterized by a throaty sound, not commonly used in everyday speech, more often heard in horror movies from a scary ghost character talking, or a dead person in a movie slowly drifting off into unconsciousness. Or, by wild animals or “monster” characters in movies. It is not commonly used in everyday speech and can sound “scary” which is why it’s used often in certain movie genres so often. It sounds “scary” to some, because it’s not a natural/typical “human” way of speaking, so it can feel unnerving and bring up “uncanny valley” feelings. But for some people with vocal damage, their voice will have somewhat of a guttural quality, due to having a tight and constricted throat (vocal damage increases tension in the throat, so that is the reason for this quality.)
Everyone’s damaged voice, whether it’s mildly damaged or severely, will sound different depending on the source of the damage, and the individual’s own unique anatomy, and how they sounded prior to the damage. It’ll look different for everyone. Some can still talk, they just sound very really (mild), some can still quietly talk, but they lose their voice halfway through the day and can’t talk the rest of the day until the next day (moderate), and some can’t talk or vocalize at all (very severe.)
Vocal cords that are damaged from mild blunt injury can heal on their own after the span of several months. (3-6) or so, and the voice will come back and gain normalcy. For vocal chords that are severely damaged from a severe blunt injury (such as getting stabbed right in the larynx idk), you may have permanent non-resolvable vocal dysfunction in which you can barely talk, or not talk/vocalize at all.
If you have severe damage, say goodbye to singing and shouting/yelling. Say hello to talking quietly and whispering in a raspy, strained voice. Say hello to vocal pain and not being able to talk for any significant length of time. Say hello to getting used to giving one word replies to things. Say hello to randomly losing your voice in the middle of the day and not being able to talk for hours, or until the next day.
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Depends how the vocal cords are damaged. Anything ranging from no noise at all to still being able to talk but sounding gravelly or raspy or just extremely quiet
You should probably see if you can find a medical subreddit of some sort, I don’t think the people in this sub necessarily know the answer to that
I have damaged vocal cords!
Depends on the day. Sometimes not much sound comes out even when I try. Other days I can speak but it’s raspy and I don’t manage entire sentences.
In fact the doctor I saw just last week said “You sound husky and I’m only catching every other word you say. Is this a good day or a bad one?” – it’s about an average day for me.
You can still speak but you can only say stupid things like “vaccines cause autism”.
The sounds produced by damaged vocal cords vary widely, some folks can only whisper while others manage raspy murmurs or even guttural growls before their words trail off, all depending on the severity of the damage and how well they’re able to breathe and control airflow through their stricken vocal mechanism…
Try doing some vocal exercises and warm-ups every day to keep those cords in shape. Seek out a speech therapist who can give you personalized tips on improving your voice.
Stay strong, your unique tone is part of what makes you, you!
I have mild vocal cord damage, so im a bit familiar with the topic.
Damage from something like smoking/vocal polyps/ etc. will mainly give you a gravelly, raspy and husky voice and can limit your vocal range and vocal ability. Your voice is much more easily fatigued, you can’t talk for long periods of time or else you will get even more hoarse and hard to understand, and vocal cords can feel tired or sore. It imitates the same inflammation that happens when someone is sick, so people like this can sound like they’re sick constantly. Throat clearing or coughing will increase as the body’s natural response to the inflammation. The voice will sound strained and harsh, due to the extra force and effort it takes to speak with damaged vocal cords. Vocal fry may develop, due to laryngeal fatigue (the vocal cords struggling to maintain a consistent pitch, so dropping into the fry-register can feel easier.)
Damage from blunt trauma or direct injury such as.. I don’t know, someone very aggressively prodding your vocal chords with a knife, you may lose more vocal ability and you may only be able to let out a harsh and extremely hoarse whisper, similar to if you have a very severe case of strep throat. Or you may not be able to whisper, you may only be able to let out short bursts of sound. Damaged vocal cords often will “cut off” your sound, not sure how to explain this, but the voice will break mid-sentence or mid-sound and go silent. For example if the doctor tells them to say say “ahhhhhhhhh” their vocal cords might fail in the middle of it, so they will only say “ahhh-“ and the rest will be croaky gurgly sounds. The person will be very quiet and struggle to be loud. The voice will sound unstable, raspy, muffled (not crisp and clear to understand) and may even sound guttural.
Guttural sounds are a vocal quality characterized by a throaty sound, not commonly used in everyday speech, more often heard in horror movies from a scary ghost character talking, or a dead person in a movie slowly drifting off into unconsciousness. Or, by wild animals or “monster” characters in movies. It is not commonly used in everyday speech and can sound “scary” which is why it’s used often in certain movie genres so often. It sounds “scary” to some, because it’s not a natural/typical “human” way of speaking, so it can feel unnerving and bring up “uncanny valley” feelings. But for some people with vocal damage, their voice will have somewhat of a guttural quality, due to having a tight and constricted throat (vocal damage increases tension in the throat, so that is the reason for this quality.)
Everyone’s damaged voice, whether it’s mildly damaged or severely, will sound different depending on the source of the damage, and the individual’s own unique anatomy, and how they sounded prior to the damage. It’ll look different for everyone. Some can still talk, they just sound very really (mild), some can still quietly talk, but they lose their voice halfway through the day and can’t talk the rest of the day until the next day (moderate), and some can’t talk or vocalize at all (very severe.)
Vocal cords that are damaged from mild blunt injury can heal on their own after the span of several months. (3-6) or so, and the voice will come back and gain normalcy. For vocal chords that are severely damaged from a severe blunt injury (such as getting stabbed right in the larynx idk), you may have permanent non-resolvable vocal dysfunction in which you can barely talk, or not talk/vocalize at all.
If you have severe damage, say goodbye to singing and shouting/yelling. Say hello to talking quietly and whispering in a raspy, strained voice. Say hello to vocal pain and not being able to talk for any significant length of time. Say hello to getting used to giving one word replies to things. Say hello to randomly losing your voice in the middle of the day and not being able to talk for hours, or until the next day.