I mean like, Canadian accent is like, totally American.
So I was wondering if most Canadian teenage girls have Valley girl accent?
So I was wondering if most Canadian teenage girls have Valley girl accent?
Do Canadian teenage girls speak like Valley girls?
Try seeing this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BC0B4L7_1-I
The Canadian VJ has a stronger Valley girl accent than Orange County's Gwen Stefani. LOL
The Canadian VJ has a stronger Valley girl accent than Orange County's Gwen Stefani. LOL
honestly with the rounded vowel /Q/ (the pronunciation used by this VJ) is so funny
I think the Valley girl stereotype is an old stereotype, which was then applied to all Socal girl, then all Cali girl, and is now becoming more widespread, all over the US. So I don't think val-speak is restricted to a certain area anymore, and you can find it in a lot of different places, in teenage girls.
I might well be wrong though.
I might well be wrong though.
I lived in the Valley for many years, now live in the East, and have recently visited the Midwest (where I grew up), and Canada. It is amazing how similar the language of young people is, especially girls/young women. Even in many places in the South. Even among immigrant kids.
Two features stand out (both of which I dislike): As OMG wrote, the never-ending use of 'like,' including replacing 'said.' The second is 'uptalking': ending a declarative sentence with a 'question-mark' intonation.
Example: "And like, I had this teacher? And he's like, "You're late?" And I'm like, "There's like other people late too?" And he's like, ..." Ad nauseum.
I've even heard experienced (older!) journalists starting to talk this way. Dislike it or not, I think these features may end up as 'standard' American English, and ESL students will be taught as such.
Two features stand out (both of which I dislike): As OMG wrote, the never-ending use of 'like,' including replacing 'said.' The second is 'uptalking': ending a declarative sentence with a 'question-mark' intonation.
Example: "And like, I had this teacher? And he's like, "You're late?" And I'm like, "There's like other people late too?" And he's like, ..." Ad nauseum.
I've even heard experienced (older!) journalists starting to talk this way. Dislike it or not, I think these features may end up as 'standard' American English, and ESL students will be taught as such.
<<Dislike it or not, I think these features may end up as 'standard' American English, and ESL students will be taught as such.>>
You assume too much.
You assume too much.
At the company where I work I'v ebeen in meetings with young women who have reached the executive level relatively early in their careers (due to being really smart) and probably because we work in the San Fernando Valley and because they're so young (mid-20s), they have a VG accent, including the very annoying uptalking.
"So like, our monthly revenue increased over last month's revenue? But the increased revenues were not like due to a larger total monthly volume? Rather, the increase is reflective of the reduction in our like cost per unit." And "unit" is pronounced: "yoonut"
"So like, our monthly revenue increased over last month's revenue? But the increased revenues were not like due to a larger total monthly volume? Rather, the increase is reflective of the reduction in our like cost per unit." And "unit" is pronounced: "yoonut"
As a denizen of the FSV (San fernando Valley) I'm happy that our speech has reached Canada and the Souther US states. But we cannot rest on our laurels. Victory will not be ours until girls in London and Glasgow, Belgrade, Teheran and Aachen have assimilated the speech patterns of girls from Encino. That will be like totally awesome, and stuff.
I think this is the new English. There's nothing wrong with that. Speech changes really fast. It's happened before and it will happen again. In 10 years this speech will be completely normal educated adult talk, but in 30 years it will already be considered elderly people speech.
These speech patterns are not just restricted to females these days too, by the way. Guys say 'like' just as much as the girls now.
These speech patterns are not just restricted to females these days too, by the way. Guys say 'like' just as much as the girls now.
Say, Guest, I think you're onto something here. Why I'm gonna go down to the 5 and dime and ask the gang what they think. I think they'll be keen on it, especially my sweetheart, Rose... she's my gal, see?
Normal speech of today is tomorrow's Jimmy Stewart talk.
Normal speech of today is tomorrow's Jimmy Stewart talk.
At least around here in southeastern Wisconsin, the only real aspects of Valley Girl speech that show up at all are the use of "like" as a filler or quotative particle (which is quite common in the former case, but which has not managed to overpower "say" in the latter case) and the use of a high rising terminal at times. Other than that, the dialect here really has not been affected by Valley Girl speech, which actually is utterly lacking in prestige here. The pronunciation here in particular is actually rather divergent from that in Californian English dialects, Valley Girl speech included. The only thing that would be considered similar is that some younger people will pronounce /o/ as something between [ɵʉ̯] and [œy̯] (and in cases even [y]) at times, but this is likely just a coincidental sound shift because it does not involve any unrounding and also involves extra diphthongization, unlike in Californian English dialects.
It's the same here in Missouri. The use of 'like' has spread like wildfire, but I can't say that any other aspect of VG speech has caught on.
However, stressing a word in the middle of a sentence, popularized by the character Chandler on the television series Friends, is widely used here. As in: "Can he BE any more retarded?"
However, stressing a word in the middle of a sentence, popularized by the character Chandler on the television series Friends, is widely used here. As in: "Can he BE any more retarded?"
Travis,
How different is the southeastern Wisconsin accent from the Chicago accent? (Or accents, since it can even vary among the different neighborhoods and suburbs.)
How different is the southeastern Wisconsin accent from the Chicago accent? (Or accents, since it can even vary among the different neighborhoods and suburbs.)
>>How different is the southeastern Wisconsin accent from the Chicago accent? (Or accents, since it can even vary among the different neighborhoods and suburbs.)<<
There are some differences (mind you that when I say "southeastern Wisconsin" I really mean the Milwaukee area), even though they are still pretty close together. Probably the most immediately apparent one is that there is a bit weaker NCVS here, such that it historical /ɔː/ normally remains rounded as [ɒ] rather than being unrounded as [ɑ] (even though this is somewhat inconsistent on the South Side), the extreme fronting of historical /ɑː/ as [æ] rather than [a] is never heard, and it is rather uncommon to actually realize historical /æ/ with a really high starting point; rather, it tends to be more [ɛ̯æ] or [ɛ̯], and even when rather strong is generally only raised to [e̯æ] (even though I myself will at times use the more extreme [i̯æ]). Also, apparently, there is a stronger vowel length distinction in the Milwaukee area than the Chicago area, at least from what I have heard of people in Chicago saying and from listening to my relatives who live closer to Chicago (but this is a completely different vowel length distinction than the historical Englsh one). There are also some lexical items rather particular to the Milwaukee area (and in cases eastern Wisconsin in general), such as "bubbler" (as opposed "water fountain" or "drinking fountain") and "soda" (as opposed to "pop"), and notably it is very common in Milwaukee to pronounce "sorry" with a mid or low rounded vowel rather than with a low unrounded vowel. Aside from these, though, I honestly cannot say too much, as I am really not in Chicago too often myself.
There are some differences (mind you that when I say "southeastern Wisconsin" I really mean the Milwaukee area), even though they are still pretty close together. Probably the most immediately apparent one is that there is a bit weaker NCVS here, such that it historical /ɔː/ normally remains rounded as [ɒ] rather than being unrounded as [ɑ] (even though this is somewhat inconsistent on the South Side), the extreme fronting of historical /ɑː/ as [æ] rather than [a] is never heard, and it is rather uncommon to actually realize historical /æ/ with a really high starting point; rather, it tends to be more [ɛ̯æ] or [ɛ̯], and even when rather strong is generally only raised to [e̯æ] (even though I myself will at times use the more extreme [i̯æ]). Also, apparently, there is a stronger vowel length distinction in the Milwaukee area than the Chicago area, at least from what I have heard of people in Chicago saying and from listening to my relatives who live closer to Chicago (but this is a completely different vowel length distinction than the historical Englsh one). There are also some lexical items rather particular to the Milwaukee area (and in cases eastern Wisconsin in general), such as "bubbler" (as opposed "water fountain" or "drinking fountain") and "soda" (as opposed to "pop"), and notably it is very common in Milwaukee to pronounce "sorry" with a mid or low rounded vowel rather than with a low unrounded vowel. Aside from these, though, I honestly cannot say too much, as I am really not in Chicago too often myself.