Reader Mail
Talking Words
The art of American accents. Also: Saigon Democrats. Vanishing Episcopalians — questions for Bishop Schori. Gobbling up Nancy. Plus much more.
(Page 3 of 16)
I live in Los Angeles, so perhaps I see different trends, but what starts out here in Hollyweird seems to propagate East. And what you’ll see out here is a rise in ‘gangsta street’ accent, and Hispanic tones.
Oh, and ‘Valley Girl’, far from being a quick-lived fad, seems to be on its way to being enshrined as an official ‘dialect’, according to a couple linguists I’ve chatted with. There are some unique characteristics that keep cropping up (aside from “y’know” and “like”) — the chief two are to break statements into small sentences, and to end each sentence on a higher pitch. It’s a little annoying to me since every sentence sounds like a question!
p>If I was to leave a voicemail with you on this topic, it would go as follows: br> /p> blockquote>”So, Mr. Henry?” br> “Valley Girl is like, so not going away?” br> “Maybe we?” br> “Could lobby for?” br> “Some government funds, to, y’know?” br> “Make it official?” br> “Like ebonics?” /blockquote> br> Much Obliged, br> —
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