Uptalking / Like / American dialects

I've seen previous threads that discussed the use of uptalking (declarative sentences sounding like questions) and the endless use of "like" as both a filler and to introduce a quote. The consensus seemed to be that this was a "Valley Girl" (San Fernando Valley, Southern California) phenomenon.

Well, I lived in the Valley, and now live in Eastern Pennsylvania. My children, native Californians, do not speak like that, but almost every one of their classmates does. EVERY sentence (with the possible exception of the last in a series) seems to end with a question mark. Every quote uses a version of "be like." And I've seen this in progressively older speakers--native Easterners in their 20s and 30s uptalking--even during business meetings! And I've heard interviews with young people from the deep South, Manhattan, and Texas sound almost exactly the same--including immigrant children (eg., "And I started studying piano when I was five? And my teacher was like, "You've got talent?" And I'm like...”

I'd like anyone's input on the following:

American accents are leveling out, in the direction of "Valley Girl" patterns and accent, at least in suburbia. Whether we like it or not, this may eventually become the unofficial standard.

Does uptalking occur in other languages? And are there equivalents for the filler "like"?

Well, depends. At least here in Wisconsin, I haven't *ever* heard high raising terminals at all, even though I do hear the use of "like" as a filler and in constructions like "<so and so> was like ...". There doesn't seem to be any indication that such would actually become an unofficial standard at all, unlike some things, such as "new" modal forms, which seem to be pretty well close to ubiquitous in North American English today.

I hear "up talking" incessantly in this area (southeastern Wisconsin), primarily among young women. I've gotten fairly accustomed to it, but it drives my dad nuts when every declarative sentence sounds like a question. It smacks of insecurity.

Well, I might just be used to it enough that I don't make much notice of it then; I just though haven't ever specifically noticed it per se much around here.

That's true, Mitch, I'm from Eastern Pennsylvania and I hear uptalking frequently among children and less frequently among people my age (I'm 20) and moreso among females. I think uptalking has spread across the entire U.S. by now.

<<American accents are leveling out, in the direction of "Valley Girl" patterns and accent, at least in suburbia.>>

In most cases, yes.

Well, I wouldn't say dialects in the US are "levelling out", so to speak, just that High Rising Terminal and the filler use of "like", as the usage "to be like" seem to have spread quite a bit in the US, but, various aspects of phonology of various dialects in the US are very clearly divergent rather than convergent. Around here, I haven't really noticed HRT much, but I do hear the use of "like" and "to be like" quite a good bit myself, albeit not to the stereotypical Valley Girl extreme.

Mitch,

You seem to know a lot about American English linguistics. What you refer to as "uptalking" occurs in Canadian English too. In fact, I think it was in Canada before it was in California.

I have never come across any literature talking about this phenomenon in other languages. I doubt that it exists in Spanish, however, because I have watched linguistic programs about foreign languages on educational television which talk about voice inflections in foreign languages. They have mentioned that Spanish is almost spoken in a monotone to the point where the tone of a question sounds scarcely different than that of a statement.

I had to travel one time to OH for a few weeks and the younger people
talk exactly like that.

It's far to early to say whether or not the Valley Girl style will prevail; I suspect it will not. Additionally, the way people talk in their teens is not necessarily the way they will talk as they get older. One of the goals of many teens is to talk in a way that is completely _unlike_ that of their elders, but once adolescence passes, the special dialect is discarded.

In any case, the usage discussed here is hardly a recent phenomenon; people have been talking that way in (American) junior high and high schools for decades.

I've heard uptalking from a lot of teenage girls, but the fact that it doesn't really cross the gender or generational divide would seem to indicate that it's unlikely to become a fixed feature of American speech. I knew many girls in high school who used to talk like that who certainly don't any more, in the same way there were a lot of guys in high school who tried to talk "gangsta" who probably sound like accountants now.

<<What you refer to as "uptalking" occurs in Canadian English too. In fact, I think it was in Canada before it was in California.>>

I don't know any Canadian who speaks like that.

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I have not heard of uptalking occuring in any other languages than English, and I know for a fact that it does not occur in Swedish, thank God... We have an equivalent for the filler 'like' though, which is 'typ', which means 'type' as in "wha' type a' car you gat?". You hear teens use the word all the time. I also know that uptalking occurs in English and Australian English...

Je ne sais pas si j'ai bien appréhendé le phénomène présenté par Mitch, mais il me semble qu'il est présent en français.
« Et j'ai commencé le piano quand, euh, quand j'avais cinq ans ? ».

Quant à An <like>, son équivalent est Fr <genre> [ZÃR].
« Et mon prof, genre : "T'as du talent ?". Et moi, genre : "..." ».

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Exemples :

Quand y m'a dit ça, ma geule elle est tombée par terre, genre.

Elle, c'est une conne, genre conne de chez conne.

T'as pas d'thunes ? Ouais, c'est ça. Genre !

Non, j'ui ai pas dit, genre "j'sais pas".

J'suis resté con, genre "j'sais pas quoi dire".