Voice disorder is present when an individual expresses concern about having an abnormal voice that does not meet daily needs—even if others do not perceive it as different or deviant.

Signs and symptoms include

• Roughness (perception of aberrant vocal fold vibration).
• Breathiness (perception of audible air escape in the sound signal or bursts of breathiness).
• Strained quality (perception of increased effort; tense or harsh as if talking and lifting at the same time).
• Strangled quality (as if talking with breath held).
• Abnormal pitch (too high, too low, pitch breaks, decreased pitch range).
• Abnormal loudness/volume (too high, too low, decreased range, unsteady volume).
• Abnormal resonance (hypernasal, hyponasal, cul de sac resonance).
• Aphonia (loss of voice).
• Phonation breaks.
• Asthenia (weak voice).
• Gurgly/wet sounding voice.
• Hoarse voice (raspy, audible aperiodicity in sound).
• Pulsed voice (fry register, audible creaks or pulses in sound).
• shrill voice (high, piercing sound, as if stifling a scream); and
• tremulous voice (shaky voice; rhythmic pitch and loudness undulations).