LL-L: "Language varieties" 29.JUN.2000 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

 ======================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 29.JUN.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 Archive: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html>
 =======================================================================
 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic
 =======================================================================

From: Jasmin Harvey [jharvey at ucla.edu]
Subjecxt: LL-L: "Language varieties" 29.JUN.2000 (01) [E]

> From: Lee [glent at troi.csw.net]
> Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" 27.JUN.2000 (05) [E]
>
> > >John wrote
> > >people 30 and under, at least in the Northern States.
>
> Actually, that is an accent that comes from Southern California and has
> been a common accent for many years not just from the 1980s.  I'm from
> Southern CA and in the 60s I was a young kid not even in my teens
> and it is
> true the surfers did talk this way but not only they but others as
> well.

Hmmm, perhaps the popularity of this accent has waned in SoCal since you
moved to Arkansas, Lee (Douglas?), because it doesn't sound like anything
I've heard.  I have lived in the San Fernando Valley off and on since 1981
-
and those of you who know what the summers are like here will pity me - and

also on the West Side (WLA, Culver City, Westwood) and still study and work

at UCLA (those who know about the commute will pity me too!).  I really
haven't heard this pronounciation.  It may well be "surfer speak", though,
because I haven't been part of that culture at all.  In which case it is
now
restricted to them, perhaps because surfers are less the general youth role

models they once were.  And I don't know what the jargon and accents
skateboarders affect are, either - I would expect that group to have some
influence on current language.

> >    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
>
> Justin "Valley Girl" talk became popular in the 80s due to films and
> recordings and such.  But just like other dialects it sprung up in the
> youth culture of CA much earlier than that.  How early?  I don't know for

> sure but I do know my own accent before I moved to AR.

Of course you are quite right about the origin and spread of "Valley Girl"
talk - Moon Unit Zappa's song and so forth.  Do you know that the Sherman
Oaks Galleria is being "remodeled" - actually  all but demolished - for its

upcoming incarnation as an office building?  (NB - the Galleria was
sometimes considered the heart of 80's Valley "youth culture" and that
characteristic, strong accent.  Fer sherr!)  It just didn't make it much
into the 90s as the hangout of choice for the cool kids.  I went there last

in '96 or so, and the emptiness was eerie, what with all that white stone
and chrome for the echoes to bounce off...

I still hear "Valley Girl" types of accents very occasionally, but my
impression is that it has faded quite a bit.  Of course, I'm not in high
school any more as I was in the mid-80s, so I have less exposure to the
fashions of teens, but I'm basing it on what I've seen in our freshmen.  I
would certainly say it's not spreading.

Jasmin Harvey
Germanic Linguistics C.Phil.
jharvey at ucla.edu

==================================END===================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 =======================================================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
   to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
 =======================================================================