Posted on 12/31/2009 11:04:42 AM PST by don-o
For some examples, tune in to Hannity's show in the afternoon and hear young (I assume) females who speak in some sort of Valley Girl / Munchkin combination of vocabulary and inflection.
In the interest of equal treatment, many young males also exhibit poor communication skills; but poor in a different way. Many sound like remarkable apes who have learned rudimentary human speech.
What is the cause of this loss of standard speech?
This has been troubling me for quite some time. The last day of the year is a good time to get it out of my head and out there for discussion.
Thank you for letting me share!
Peoples needs to spends more times at da lie berries.
I took the exam covering ebonics and had to explain talking shit.
There was a exam?
I suspected you were snarking on Hormone Replacement Therapy. :o)
I have seen people in the same room texting each other.
Lieberry—what you eat when you want to tell lies.
Library—where you go when you want to borrow a book.
it’s interesting how the expression ‘all right’ or ‘alright’ can be expressed in one syllable beginning with I. And with no T.
I don’t know, but you make a great point. You should be 67 and work in an office full of these half-wits. They’re so, like, with it. And, they all do that cute-baby, pet-puppy, a-w-w-w-w-w-w-w..., thing ‘til they drive you right up the wall. Why couldn’t I just RETIRE? CRAP !!!
fixin is a perfectly good word and works well in many situations.
When I was working, I talked to someone in yankee land on the phone and said sumpin’ like, “I’m fixin to fax that to you right now.”
And this guy was in heaven. He was from down here and hadn’t heard that in years. He wanted to hear it again.
We lived there only a year, while my husband was in grad school, so I didn’t really learn to understand the native speech. If it was absolutely essential, I’d keep asking until I got the message, but mostly I just lived with partial comprehension.
Around Tullahoma, with the Air Force station and the university branch and so on, most of the residents weren’t “from there,” even if they came from elsewhere in the South.
“fixnta have a glass of sweet tea before mominems shows up.”
“My brother bard my pickup truck.”
“I cudnt unnerstand a wurd he sed,must be from some farn country.”
“Great,ANOTHER gummit shutdown!
I’ve heard this speech locally. Girls are far more susceptible. Get a gaggle of them together, and it’s nearly unintelligible.
Weird takes on pronunciation influenced by pop culture, movies and television is my best guess. There’s a whole “look” that goes with the speech, too. They’re very self-absorbed, but very self-conscious. Conforming and thinking you’re cool is a universal teen experience, no matter the decade. But this is teen angst in hyperdrive, with a dose of “Mean Girls” tossed in for good measure.
The most grating and common phrase from this pernicious, neo-Val popspeak is “think yao.” Can you guess the meaning, lol?
Something I’ve always wondered about but cannot ask because it is so non PC.
Why can one always tell (nearly always) black people by their voices, as in when they call in to a radio talk show or when you hear them comment on sports shows. It’s been... how long? 150 years anyway. Can someone ‘splain that to me?
Obama eats solotta lie berries.
Not for valspeak—go figure.
Don’t remember who mentioned female voices but gotta admit they can hurt the ears. I’ve always longed for a contralto voice like Bea Arthur or like my sister had ... tho hers may have been a whiskey tenor.
(Obscure Zappa reference)
i often hear my students speak statements as though they are asking questions... their voices raise at the end of the sentences... every now and then i hear my oldest son do this—one of his friends does this constantly... so i ask him, “are you asking me a question?” i do not let him speak this way... i am often telling one of my students in my Speech and Oral Presentations class to speak “statements.” he is improving...
Where’r you at? :) You sound like you’re close by! LOL
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