Fw: Teenage speak and beyond

[Richard Vallis]

By pattern, I meant my proposed teen speak "dialect." I didn't think context
would alter pronunciation. Would you still disagree?  If so, very
interesting and enlightening to me.  I'm not a linguist, but a Ph.D. in
music.

Richard Vallis


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
To: <rvallis at optonline.net>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Teenage speak and beyond


> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ------------------
> -----
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Fw: Teenage speak and beyond
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> 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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> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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