When discovering the meaning of the term guttural, it is necessary, first of all, to know the etymological origin of this word. In this case, we can determine that it derives from Latin, exactly it comes from “gutturalis”, which, in turn, comes from “guttur, gutturis” which is synonymous with “throat”.
This term is used to describe what is linked to the throat : the internal space that extends from the soft palate to the beginning of the esophagus and larynx. The concept also refers to the front area of the neck.
A guttural sound , therefore, is one whose articulation is made in the posterior sector of the vocal tract . These are serious sounds, which are similar to growls . For example: “When he was stabbed, the man made a guttural sound,” “The animal's guttural sound frightened people,” “With a guttural roar, the beast lunged at its prey.”
A type of singing that is often used in certain branches of heavy metal, such as death metal, grindcore and trash, is known as guttural voice . It is usually male singers who resort to the guttural voice, although there are also women who dabble in this type of singing.
Tom Araya (Slayer), Chris Barnes (Cannibal Corpse y Six Feet Under) y Max Cavalera (Grave y soulfly) son algunos de los cantantes que se hicieron famosos por su voice gutural.
In the same way, it should be noted that, throughout history, there have also been women who have stood out in the field of music for using or having a guttural voice. This would be the case, for example, of Masha Scream, leader of the Russian band Arkona; Britta Görtz, who was the vocalist of the trash metal band Cripper; Charlotte Wessels, leader of the Dutch gothic metal group Delain, or Sabina Classen, singer of the band Holy Moses.
For many people, guttural singing is limited to screaming and roaring. Others, however, recognize in the guttural voice a technique that uses the throat in different ways to achieve nuances.
Likewise, it must be taken into account that when using a guttural voice to sing, two types of singing are established: guttural singing exhaling or guttural singing inhaling.
However, it is considered that several more different kinds of guttural songs can be found within music. Among these are throat scraping, guttural throat-clearing heavy metal scream, deep guttural or double voices.
A guttural consonant , on the other hand, is a letter that has its point of articulation in the posterior region of the vocal tract. Glottal, epiglottal, pharyngeal and uvular consonants are generally classified as guttural.
Specifically, we have to state that among the consonants of the alphabet that are considered guttural we find g, j and k.
Among the synonyms of the word in question, we can highlight some such as rough, deep, rude, hoarse, low or deep.