Teenage speak and beyond

[Paul Johnston]

Yes and no--the directionality is different, and it affects many
vowels that were historically short, which the GVS did not.  But
vowel shifting happens in rounds in Germanic languages, and we are in
the middle of another round, I think.

Paul Johnston
On Jun 1, 2007, at 9:11 AM, Landau, James wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Landau, James" <James.Landau at NGC.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Teenage speak and beyond
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> 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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