Why do so many people talk like that?

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

[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!

[radiohead]

Veni, Vidi, Vicki: “I came, I saw, and I’m like, Omigod!”

LOL! And you have to say “omigod” with an uplift and then quick downturn in the voice and two syllabus in ‘god’ (ga-ahd).

[Tijeras_Slim]

You had to know that was coming. :)

[OafOfOffice]

Its’ called HRT.

hormone replacement therapy?

[don-o]

ping

This is going to be a fun thread.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A heavy machinery mechanic who worked at our coal mine often concluded his sentences with the verbal exclamation, "what I did."
"I changed out the oil from the scrapers, what I did."
I never could pin down where this habit came from or if it was from area of the country or another.

[LiberConservative]

Once at Taco Bell I ordered two tacos and a burrito supreme. The girl verified my order: “You say you want two taco and one burrito supremes?”

[blackdog]

I aint seen none.

I'm doing good.

I seen it he/she/it.

Are just a few used by the executives running the company where I work.

[don-o]

I hate to get my hopes up. So, thanks.

[dalereed]

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

If you got the meaning, go to hell!

[Little Bill]

I spent some time Northern England several years ago and in some areas of the South. There is English and there is what people speak. They understood me but I will be damned if I understood them, until the ear got tuned.

[Jagdgewehr]

Not to mention “Valspeak” thrown into the mix.

[mamelukesabre]

I can’t stand either. I like the way winsonsin and minnesota girls talk. And the dakotas too.

[OafOfOffice]

I sure hope our kids do not pick up Obama’s uh, uh, uh’s!

[BluesDuke]

You didn't get the memo? It was the subtitle of Edwin Newman's first language book: Will America Be The Death of English?

I fear the answer is in the affirmative.

[Tax-chick]

Yet another reason to avoid talk radio ...

I’m listening to Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver’s “Classical Mythology” lectures again. She has such nice diction.

[OafOfOffice]

Oh no you......”di-int”

[gardengirl]

See you that and raise you anything from Harker’s Island! Love the people of downeast NC, but it’s akin to trying to decipher Olde English mixed with a Scottish burr and a Southern twang thrown in. LOL

[FrdmLvr]

He must be able to count rapidly.

[OafOfOffice]

fargo speak?

[cornelis]

It isn’t a ‘loss of standard’, simply changes in said dialects . . . Clear communication . . . the guideposts of those who successfully advance in society.

I disagree on the first. Between clarity and dialect, the concern is clarity. And this about dialect: some dialects sorely lack it because its culture is not nourished by excellence. Ebonics is not a standard of clear communication because it is unable to adequately address the fundamental problems of society. Using it that way would turn the subject into satire.