Why do so many people talk like that?

Little House on Unaka | December 31, 2009 | don-o

[Carpe Cerevisi]

Like, what are trying to get at?

[Yo-Yo]

It’s like, you know...

[mnehring]

What is the cause of this loss of standard speech?

What standard of speech?

[don-o]

Like - there’s like a whole like generation that can’t like speak like with coherence. It could make one like crazy, if one like let it.

[humblegunner]

Don’t axe me.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

That is so, like, gay.

[nothingnew]

Pubic Edjamakayshun

FMCDH(BITS)

[Harley]

I used to think Valley Girl dialect was annoying until I heard those chicks on Jersey Shore talking. Now after 2 minutes of listening to them you’ll be dying to talk with a like girl like from the valley, you know.

[don-o]

What standard of speech?

Is that a real question or just a cynical comment? Please advise.

[Constitution Day]

I, like, broke my like, 9-year-old daughter from like, talking like that, when I was, like, talking this way for like, 20 minutes.

I think she realized how ridiculous it sounded after that. ;)

[Perdogg]

Laura Ingraham does the same thing. Its’ called HRT. Women do it, they say, because women fear they are going to be interrupted.

[library user]

[workerbee]

What I think?
Is that it’s like
Some kind of weird thing?
Where like
Everybody talks really weird?
So that every sentence or so?
Ends like a question?
Ya know?

[chalkfarmer]

In my husband's class his students often give presentations. He subtracts points for every um and double points for every like.

[Salamander]

Call me and I’ll make you sick of the “Highland Southern Dialect” [aka Hillbilly-speak] in an hour or less....LOL!

[ClearBlueSky]

When I hear ‘ di-int’ I could bitch-slap the offender into the next millenium.

[don-o]

You nailed it; and in a very poetic manner. Thank you.

[mnehring]

It is a real question, regional and generational dialects have always existed. It isn’t a ‘loss of standard’, simply changes in said dialects. Clear communication is always a challenge and has, throughout history, been one of the guideposts of those who successfully advance in society.

I believe what is different now is that with the mass distribution of media, we are exposed more to different regional and generational dialects and those often spread further than what would have been their isolated enclaves in the past.

[Uncle Miltie]

Yo, dude, like, no duh!

Jus cuz we ain speek like you doan mean weez stupid or nuffin.

Yoo racis!