What can we do to stop it? This is just one more thing that is totally annoying me.
banning the word “like” would be a start.
Sounds, from that description, more like how Canadians talk. They always put a little up inflection near the end of every sentence. This makes it sound like a questions eh. eg: http://youtu.be/F-glHAzXi_M
Me, I wouldn’t like that as a start. And whatever it would be a start toward.
A lot of strines and kiwis use uptalk as well.
I don’t like it but creaky voice is worse!
Valley guy my shiny ass.
This is about BRO-PHONICS, plain and simple.
I’d like to think that uptalk and vocal fry generally can’t be combined (simultaneously), and are mutually exclusive. I’m sure there’s a way to do it, though.
Like totally annoying you?
Maybe they could replace it with “sympathize” like facebook is doing?
we don’t want you to sound like us, anyway.
Am i the only person who is diturbed by the broad generalization being made about tens of million english speaking men based on a sample of 12 men in a single location? I could reproduce the study with my coworkers, have a larger sample and argue more convincingly that the valley accent does not exist in men. I expect more science literacy from boingboing.
Currently, I’m playing hockey with a guy from Winnepeg and a guy from Hamilton. The uptick is sometimes present in the guy from Hamilton (he’s 23-24 years old), but never the guy from Winnepeg (he’s 40). Does that mean people in Manitoba are less likely to say “eh”, or that people from Ontario are more likely to? Or is it an affect of youth, just like Valleyspeak?
RTFA, brah.
The article said nothing about tens of millions of anything. Also, for a person who (apparently) can generate a study with all its associated paperwork and organization, and who is (apparently) able to whip up a paper far more convincing than the one linked, your spellcheck doesn’t work.
I expect more science literacy from boingboing readers. [Please note: that last sentence is to be phrased with a rise at the end of the utterance. And a nekkid dance, too. Also please note that your impositions to not feed the trollies is too late so save your pixels.]
Did no linguists in the last 20 years have any boy children? Seriously, this is not new! It used to drive me crazy when my now 24yo son would end every statement as if it were a question. He was not alone. The other two kids did it, too (daughter now 21 and son now 14). Their friends in California, Washington and northern Idaho all did the same in the pre-teen and teen years. 14 yo seems to have been mostly broken of the habit by living in a place where the kids have different (but also strange) verbal twitches.
To linguists, the central feature of Valleygirl Dialect is the tendency to make a statement sound like a question.
In the Hunger Games books that’s also a common feature of Capitol Dialect? I think that may be more than a coincidence?
