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Up-talking - whose idea was this?

Captain Pre-Capsize

Captain Pre-Capsize

With the holidays we see folks we haven't seen for a while, whether friends of neighbors or distant relatives. I am starting to think I am the only one holding the line on normal speech. All around me, young (mostly it is the young) and some older (older ones trying to be hip) are ending sentences with an upward lilt as if their statement is a question.

Recently I read that this habit has the effect of undermining your personal position / authority. A speech pattern with what sounds like a question implies indecision. While true, it is also simply odd. There is no actual question, you do it for some unstated reason. Why?
 
mcee_sharp

mcee_sharp

MCEAPWINMOLQOVTIAAWHAMARTHAEHOAIDIAMRHDAE
Can't say I've experienced it in Canada or the US, but globally I have encountered it. I chalked that up to a regionality so just rolled with it. If I experience it over the holidays however, I will be flipping a table!
 
EclipseRedRing

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I was under the impression, probably incorrectly, that the rising inflection originated in Australia; I find it mildly irritating, unlike the vocal fry which is simply intolerable. As I get older, the number of things I find irritating or intolerable, seems to be rising exponentially 😄
 
slimshavy

slimshavy

No one is holding the line on normal speech. Speech is just doing its thing. If you watched a movie from the 1940s in the 1980s, you couldn't help but notice how differently people spoke back then. If you watch a movie from the 1980s today, you'll notice the same thing.
Forty years hence, people will be lamenting some other change in the language that hasn't yet emerged to annoy us.
 
NorthernSoul

NorthernSoul

slimshavy said:
...Forty years hence, people will be lamenting some other change in the language that hasn't yet emerged to annoy us.
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This one, along with the people that sound like they gargled with gravel, drives me up the wall!

It's not a change in the language, it's an irritating speech mannerism. These things will hopefully fall out of fashion some day soon.

My theory is it came into fashion with some TV series or movies. How else to explain the speed with which this plague has spread through the population? You can't avoid it and you can't say: "Excuse me, would you mind talking normally?".
 
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ctr

ctr

One is held in regard and thought intelligent. Until one speaks when disappointment will assuredly follow.
 
brucered

brucered

Jayson74 said:
I have some co-workers that are 20some years younger then me. They were doing this.
After I repeatedly said I dont understand the question....it stopped. At least at work around me.

Be crusty
Jay
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I've been know to ask that as well, especially online where it is easier to spot.

Someone will make a big long post, with a bunch of facts and statements but no question. The question is implied but no actual question has been asked. I think it's because people don't want to ask for help.

Ask a question and use a "question mark" to make it stand out. If someone gives an answer, thank them. It's just common courtesy.

For full disclosure, I have not asked a question in this reply,. No question mark present. :letterk1:
 
Quaznoid

Quaznoid

A lot of younger American women speak that way. They also suffer from glottal stop: the sentence is not sustained with sufficient oxygen, and it trails off to a croaky ending. Very common on TV.
 
Manye

Manye

EclipseRedRing said:
I was under the impression, probably incorrectly, that the rising inflection originated in Australia; I find it mildly irritating, unlike the vocal fry which is simply intolerable. As I get older, the number of things I find irritating or intolerable, seems to be rising exponentially 😄
Click to expand...
It’s everywhere here in Australia, and it is indeed irritating.
 
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