Rewind retro video of the day... From Paramount (Los Angeles), CA, here are The Plimsouls with their 1983 single A Million Miles Away, from their album Everywhere at Once. They were featured in the movie Valley Girl during the nightclub scenes, also playing their song Oldest Story in the World (both of which are featured on the album and soundtrack). The song was a minor hit on the West Coast, particularly on LA radio station KROQ. Valleyspeak (or Valspeak) is the common name for an American social dialect (or sociolect) that originated in the San Fernando Valley northwest of LA, though it is also heard in Australia. The sociolect itself is specifically known for a rise in pitch at the end of sentences, as though the person sounds like s/hes asking a question when actually making a statement. Scientists call this pattern of speech uptalk. To the ears of most people unfamiliar with the sociolect, it is often misunderstood. While the speaker intends to convey politeness and empathy through uptalk, the speaker sounds insecure, shallow, or even slightly dimwitted by the listener... and over time it can tend to grate on the listeners nerves. In regard to the original Valspeak of the 70s and 80s, surfer and skateboarding slang was added. Thus the phrases, Grody to the max, Gag me with a spoon, and the constant use of the hedge word like to lessen the impact of an utterance are used with wanton abandon. This was exemplified in the 82 Frank & Moon Unit Zappa song Valley Girl and in the 82-83 sitcom Square Pegs. In a recent BBC article (bbc/news/science-environment-25232387), Dr. Claire Nance, a linguistics professor at Lancaster University (UK) has been studying uptalk, and argues that the sociolect is still growing, specifically among young men. She states, Typically, women are trailblazers in language change and take up innovative features first, then males start using them later. She added, No spoken language ever remains stable and constant change is very much the norm. However, change often causes alarm among people who do not use an innovative feature, and uptalk appears to be another example of this trend. If this trend continues and expands beyond CA, perhaps well finally be able to answer a question with a question. youtube/watch?v=aIxgBMNhsKU
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:59:32 +0000