[zencycler]

Agreed, also, nearly everyone on Long Island, New York needs to learn this one:

•Don’t raise your pitch at the end of a statement if it’s not a question.

Doing that is part of the local dialect, and raising two kids in that area, I fought a mostly losing battle trying to get them to stop doing this.

I can't tell you how many times I said to them "ARE YOU ASKING ME OR TELLING ME"?

[GeronL]

Shouldn’t they have been learning hard words... BEFORE they were hired??

[kabumpo]

It comes from the Yiddish influence.

[jmacusa]

I worked in The Big Apple in construction in the late ‘70s and ‘80s and still remember this one, originated in Brooklyn I think, “For what’’? And in New Jersey, actually kind of originating in the Philly(PA.)-Trenton (NJ) area this gem, “He thinks who he is’’.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

High Rising Terminal (HRT) AKA uptalk, upspeak or High Rising Intonation.
In some places it’s known as Australian Questioning Intonation.

It may be infectious.