When someone is suppressing grief, we sometimes describe the subjective sensation as "a lump in the throat." Apparently this is may be due to conflicting urges to expand or contract the muscles of the glottis.
If a person is doing this, and they try to speak, there may be some audible modulation to the sound of their voice associated with this.
Imagine you're listening to their voice on the radio only. You could call it a "shake", "quiver", or "tension" in the voice.
Is there a better, more specific word for this sound?
Best Answer
Choke with grief is a common and enduring locution. Here is an example from 1823 in May you like it, by a country curate by Charles Benjamin Tayler
Naomi woke from her reverie: " yes, I am well ," she said, in a voice half choked with grief, and waving her hand, "order the coach." The man had scarcely left the room, ere she burst into an agony of tears.
And here's an example from 1989 in The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon by Arnold Krupa: