Teenage speak and beyond

[Landau, James]

Isn't this nothing more than a continuation of the Great Vowel Shift,
re-emerging after about three centuries in a beyance?

   - Jim Landau


----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Vallis
To: ads-l at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 5:11 PM
Subject: Teenage speak and beyond



There is a kind of learned patois regularly spoken mainly by  teenage
girls in the past few  decades ( who in many cases continue to speak it
well into their 20's and 30's)  that was best exemplified  by Lorraine
Newman's "valley girl" character on "Saturday Night Live" in the 70's.

 In what appears to be an attempt at speech sophistication, the
adolescent girl (and occasional guy) characteristically distorts the
vowel sounds, especially  the  "e" as in the word best.  Best becomes
"bast" or "bost" or "bus."  Better becomes "batter" as the mouth opens
wide to accommodate this apparently classy way of enunciating.  Other
vowel sounds are similarly affected by the sophisticatedly wide open
mouth.  Bush becomes "bahsh" and on it goes, endlessly.  What's more
daunting, is that the individual continues this distortion into post
adolescence and beyond when a young person's apparent need for "fitting
in" and peer pressure would seem to be diminished.

Television personalities and actors have generally been purged of it,
but it maddeningly rears itself, wide-mouthed, in commercials.  What's
surprising is that most listeners don't seem to notice the bend in
pronunciation until it's pointed out to them.

 I've done a Google search and, no matter what search parameter I
supply, I don't find a reference to it.

I wonder if you would be so kind as to point me to any studies or
references to this pattern.  It has fascinated me for years but, alas, I
have found no one to corroborate it.



Richard Vallis

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