Vocal fry is an obnoxious habit that does seem to be spreading. Even as a youngster (long ago), I heard a small number of people speak with this trait, seemingly because they couldn’t help it, but now it’s being cultivated. A young woman phoned the other day from my bank, and I wouldn’t talk to her because this habit of speech was too jarring. gravelly (“gravely” is grave-ly—i.e., in a grave or serious manner)