Comments on: The Low Down on Uptalk

By: declan1

declan1 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:23:07 +0000

A little late for this topic,but this crap drives me berserk. I try to avoid conversing with anyone under the age of 30 due to the fact that I may do or say something about this stupid voice elevation.There is nothing cute about this annoying crap,I sometimes speak to younger foreigners and noticed that they try extra hard to speak correctly.This valley girl crap has to be addressed and eliminated.

By: Kirk Gunn

Kirk Gunn — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:57:54 +0000

Oh, what a godsend this blog is! I have been wondering if it’s only me that can hear the HRTs, the “growl-talking”, the pronunciation of the short “a” in place of the short “e” (e.g. the word “bed” prounced as “bad”), etc. Yet, there are very few places online that address anything close to these bastardized pronunications and “newspeak”, and those that do exist are by and for linguists that use a symbology which can only be learned by becoming a linguist!
BUT: Here is the *latest* thing/craze that is sweeping North America, primarily used by news broadcasters (both male and female): it is the “lip smack” that is produced between news items. It is never used in the middle of a news piece while the topic remains the same, but seems to be used as a signal to get the viewer to pay attention to a new topic. The range of “lip-smacking” behavior ranges from the slight to the downright off-putting; if it were performed at the dinner table, the smacker’s table manners would be considered to be non-existent!
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television network is one of the prime early offenders, particularly with the endorsement of the senior newsreader, Peter Mansbridge (whose normal Canadian accent is unusually punctuated with a “typical” mid-continent American pronunciation of words like “about” and “now” with no rationale for how that affectation came to be).
However, in the intervening couple of years since Mansbridge was in the vanguard of the “lip-smacking-for-emphasis” vanity, television announcers all over Canada and the United States have jumped on this most annoying bandwagon.
This drives me nuts! And to prove it, I’ll confess that I wrote the CBC and CTV news departments to complain, with no answer. I then wrote to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Ombudsman”, outlining how offensive hearing someone’s act of semi-mastication (lip-smacking). He at least replied, but in a tone that was condescendingly dismissive.
Has anyone else noticed this latest assault on our aural sensibilities?
(I have mentioned to my long-suffering wife that, if I were ever to rule the world, people who knowingly mispronounce a word for some sort of stylistic effect would shortly find themselves on a Language Gibbet that I would commission in every city.)

By: Soviet Canuckistan

Soviet Canuckistan — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:58:49 +0000

I think the HRT has been a consistent feature of Canadian English for a long, long time. We even have the classic Canadian “Eh?” at the end of phases to emphasize. It has been cited as proof of a certain Canadian desire not to offend, to search for agreement. American English, by contrast, seems mroe definitive.

Regarding “speaking To”: I hear it all the time, especially at work, and I hate it. It makes no sense. I prefer to speak About things or speak Of certain things. I speak To my audience – if I am making a speech and don’t care what they think. Normally I speak With interlocutors.

It seems to me that “to speak to” must be overused in error, but my reseach so far indicates that it is acceptable. I am having trouble accepting that. I would love some professors of English to speak Out against this trend.

By: skip

skip — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:11:31 +0000

I am a trained speaker, a major in speech, graduated from leading rhetorical colleges. I hear the following EVERYWHERE. One is obvious “up talk”. Two is valspeak. Three would be sufer speech. Four is the aforementioned vowel subsitution. Six is the vocalized pauses: “um”, “like”, you know, know what I mean. Seven is the throaty growl I call gravel throat which is happening throuhout the entire sentence not just the ends anymore. And eight is sweeping the, literally, the world. It is the sibilant “s” or the overly prounouced words with c, s, t, th. There are diagnosed people with s problems that need speech therapy. But the “s” problem is the people who adopt the s to sound more sophisticated. It started in England and it is irritating when it is an affect not a serious speech problem. I here the combinations more and more. At meetings, audio books, TV announcers, and now, actors. Stayed tuned for my theroies but this type of sppech sounds like 6 year olds. And I can’t take the person seriously. I will find another bank teller, turn off the tv channel, return the CD!!!!!!!!!

By: Dudu Stinks

Dudu Stinks — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:01:01 +0000

I love the thread.

I must add the “I feel like” phenom. Example “I feel like she doesn’t, like, want to talk to you.” what does him not wanting to talk to you actually feel like? Is it a warm sensation? Happy? Sad? The worst is ending a sentence in “I feel like”– ” this restaurant was much better today, I feel like”

While I am at it, what is the deal with an “or” closer? Meaning, a person who asks a question with an implied choice but you never are given the choice. example “Are you planning on reading that memo or…..?” I often feel bullied when someone uses that one. There is no real choice, you are going to read that memo!

Peace

By: C. Weber

C. Weber — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:26:47 +0000

This is such an excellent article and the posts are also informative.
The “uptick” voice (my husband is a comparative philologist and prefers this synonym for the every-sentence-is-a-query) according to my husband is indeed a deep South trademark. It is the natural twang inherent in the regions south and east of the Appalachians. For everyone else, it is no more than the terrible phenomenon of “copy-cat reflex”. (My husband has all sorts of little terms.)

What is certainly worse than the uptick and the “creak” (my husband calls the creak “the 2-packs-a-day”) is the screaming liberal speaking at 10,000 decibels. (See, or rather, hear, Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow, MSNBC.)

It is also to be noted that British, Australian and New Zealand dialects have odd inflections when asking a question, a Chinese-style uptick right before letting the hammer drop on the last word. (“Are you SLEEP-ingggggggg?”) This sort of “chirp” is not catching on in America, but it may certainly be related to the upswing.

(Husband again) notes that people are badly mistreating the word “would”. “I would say that…”, “It would seem…”, “We would agree…” except that requires an exception. “I would say ‘crap’, only it is against my religion.’ Otherwise, one should express it: “I say ‘CRAP’!!”Nice work, writers, love the page.

By: Smbika

Smbika — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:45:44 +0000

Thanks everyone. You all nailed it beautifully. MY pet peeve is the “growl” but a close second is the up-talk with the “a” instead of “e” a credible 3rd place winner.

I find myself turning off radio programs even when I am engrossed in the topic because of the grating voice of one or more participants…sadly, all but a few of them women…or perhaps i should be grateful that more men don’t do this. The thing about the growl, though, is that men have a naturally deep voice and women seem to be attempting to imitate it…

By: Tony C.

Tony C. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:16:40 +0000

For a great example of the “quacking 6-year old” syndrome, try “the Bachelor”. Don’t look, just listen. How old are these ninnies? 6? 8… maybe. If you can decipher every sentence before it growls away,congratulations. I would keep all the damn roses and send the girls (guys?) back to school.
There is a local politician whose favorite spin is “Clearly we are moving forward to work together to stay on the same page” He has been getting away with this meaningless twaddle for many years, mainly when moving quickly through a crowd
The newest catchphrase is “on the ground” How are things there on the ground? says one reporter to another. Where are the rest of us?…. in the trees??

Remember “world-wide”? Don’t say it anymore. Now it’s “global”

Guys and Gals…Boys and Girls…Guys and Dolls…Ladies and Gents
What are we to do?
A young female will admit to enjoying a “girly movie” or a “girly drink, but don’t call her a girl. Or a lady. They used to hate “chick”
I think some secretly like it,however the tennis coach would surely forfeit his racquet and balls had he said “now I want you chicks to….”

By: Robert Beard

Robert Beard — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:03:01 +0000

I was about to do a blog entry on “guy” when I noticed that Tony had already brought it up. I was doing my rounds in the fieldhouse yesterday as the women’s tennis team was gathering. The coach was saying things like, “Hi, guys” and “Now, I want you guys to . . . .” I think this is because “gals” is slang but, for some strange reason, “guys” is not.

We don’t call mature women (as we would like to presume college-aged females are) “girls” until they reach retirement age (!?) That pretty much leaves “gals” as a feminine correlate to “guys”. If “gal” is too slangy it becomes potentially offensive, leaving us with what–guys?

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:06:56 +0000

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you Tony C. I’ve observed the disappearance of Mother too. Everybody’s a Mom. What’s wrong with being a Mother? Does Mom not bear the burden of the Freudian associations with the word Mother? Is Mom supposed to be friendlier? Happier? More involved? And “to speak to” the topic of the quacking sound adopted by virtually every woman under 50, I ask “Is sounding like a six year old supposed to be sexy?” It is so aggravating to listen to. And while we’re tossing out observations about other language trends, have you noticed that there is no more “in the future”? It’s always “going forward.” This is especially true in newscasts.