LL-L: "Language varieties" 27.JUN.2000 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 27.JUN.2000 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Iustin Churchill [mladios at hotmail.com]
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" 27.JUN.2000 (02) [E]

R. F. Hahn wrote:
>
>John wrote
>
>"Watching the recent British Telecom "teenage split" TV commercial I
> >noticed that the girl (otherwise speaking standard English) >pronounced
>"friend" and "yet" almost as "frand" and "yat". I caught >something
similar
>in an American TV film the other day. Is this a new >sound-shift? "
>
>So you noticed!  Yæs, John. Thaht's, like, ah newish sordev theng.  >I've
>been "studying" ... well, watching it.  I think it started in >the
>mid-to-late 1980s and is in full swing now, probably being >standard among

>people 30 and under, at least in the Northern States.

   Ah yes, that! I was talking with a friend of mine about that just
yesterday. Unless I am mistaken, that is what we so scientificaly refer to
as "California Surfer" talk, and the voice that goes with it I think I
would
describe as being almost raspy. In fact, I would wager that a great many
people would know just what you meant were you to refer to it as
"California
Surfer" talk. Those are _our_ words anyway, 'we' here being us
east-coasters. I wouldn't know if the rest of the country calls it that. If

it seams a gross generalization either to limit it to surfers or to
California, well, y'all are a long ways away so stereotypes like that are
more or less unavoidable. You've really got my attention though if you say
it has spread beyond the above stated groups(assuming that is the origin),
and especialy if it has even jumped countries(if that was the assertion).

   On a similar note, what of "Valley Girl" talk? Is that still kicking
around? Spreading at all is it? I wouldn't know from here.

-Justin Churchill

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Dudes!

Justin wrote (above):

> You've really got my attention though if you say
> it has spread beyond the above stated groups(assuming that is the
origin),
> and especialy if it has even jumped countries(if that was the assertion).

Justin, all you need to do is watch MTV for about 15 minutes, and you'll
know that this speech mode is not confined to surfers and Californians.  I
certainly hear it here in the Seattle area everyday in many walks of life.
I'm not sure where it began.  I rather suspect that it's a fusion.

If it's a generation-prevalent speech mode in Washington State, it
shouldn't surprise you that I noticed it across the border in Canada's
British Columbia (though not as wide-spread perhaps), given that there are
close ties, much cross-border communication (including access to each
other's media) and something of a cultural continuum between neighbors.
(Emigrated Southwesterners have told me they felt like halfway in Western
Canada when they came here.  Come to think of it, so did I.)

Justin further wrote:

>    On a similar note, what of "Valley Girl" talk? Is that still kicking
> around? Spreading at all is it? I wouldn't know from here.

I don't hear it anymore (except in older movies and TV shows) and suspect
it has died or, more likely, has evolved into a substrate of another
language variety, perhaps the one we talked about above.  Besides, I have a
strong feeling that the popular media version was only loosely based on
Valley Girl Talk (i.e., a speech mode used by young females living in the
well-to-do suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles).  Some
of it seems highly exaggerated and cartoon-like, portraying all speakers of
it as spoiled air-heads.  Like ... ugh! ... kinda dumb really.  Gag me with
a spoon!  In the 1980s I lived in Southern California for a while.  Yes, I
did hear "the talk" all around, but the most extreme versions I've heard
usually were exaggerated imitations by non-Valley-Girls and
non-Californians, including non-females.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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