Fw: Teenage speak and beyond

[Dennis Preston]

Not facetious in the least, unless you insist that "choice" is always
a fully conscious sort of behavior. If this "choice" did not exist,
then about three generations of sociolinguists will have wasted their
time (not to mention innumerable previous generations of students of
"style").

dInIs




>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Richard Vallis <rvallis at OPTONLINE.NET>
>Subject:      Re: Fw: Teenage speak and beyond
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I assume you're being facetious by declaring one chooses one's  speech
>pattern to fit what one is saying.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Michael H Covarrubias" <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>To: <rvallis at optonline.net>
>Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 10:52 AM
>Subject: Re: Fw: Teenage speak and beyond
>
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header ------------------
>>  -----
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: Fw: Teenage speak and beyond
>>  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>  -----
>>
>>  Quoting Richard Vallis <rvallis at OPTONLINE.NET>:
>>
>>  >  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....
>>  >
>>  > Richard Vallis
>>  >
>>  ---------------------
>>
>>  I wonder if this is related to the 'a' > 'ah' (think 'cat'>'cot')
>>  alternation
>>  that I've noticed in a few commercials. One commercial is I believe for a
>>  hotline for girls town (or some similar adolescent support group). One of
>>  the
>>  girls in the commercial says (paraphrase) "I'd have to lose 10 pounds to
>>  fit
>>  into that" -- the vowel in "that" is pretty close to [a].
>>
>>  In another commercial, this one for the Dirt Devil Kone vacuum cleaner,
>>  the
>>  designer, Karim Rashid, pronounces "that" (in the phrase "that way" with
>>  [a]
>>  instead of the "ash" vowel.
>>
>>  I hate to judge someone's intentions by pronunciation but the context of
>>  both
>>  these passages allows me some comfort in claiming that they're attempts
>>  "at
>>  speech sophistication." The girl is playing the part of the vain, body-
>>  conscious
>>  superficial peer, and Karim is...well anyone who thinks a vacuum cleaner
>>  should
>>  be a fashion statement is obvious trying a little too hard to be
>>  sophisticated.
>>
>>  Here's a url for the vacuum cleaner commercial.
>>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuJeT6aFBvs
>>
>>  Michael
>>
>>
>>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>     English Language & Linguistics
>>     Purdue University
>>     mcovarru at purdue.edu
>>
>>     web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
>>    <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>
>>
>>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
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