Help identifying an accent?

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Has anybody heard a particular accent where the speaker seems to go breathless and their voice cracks at the end of the word, especially certain consonants? It seems to be mainly women in their 20s and early 30s, and seems to be an affected, "trendy" accent. A few years back it seemed to be everywhere; every TV commercial trying to sell to this demographic was using it.

If you've seen the movie Fever Pitch, you know what i'm talking about. Drew Barrymore's character had this accent, and Jimmy Fallon commented that she was talking out the side of her mouth.

PS. Why ask this in Davis? There are people here who speak this way, and it tends to stick out like a sore thumb. Perhaps some resident linguist can explain. Why not ask this in B0st0n? Dont want to scroll through a snarkfest.

Comments

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Hell, yes. That article pins it down.

[krystynayt.livejournal.com]

Yikes, okay. I know why I don't hear it: I talk like that. It's not something I consciously picked up at all and I've done it for as long as I can remember being aware of how people speak.

Or at least, I say things like "and he's all like... and then she's like... and he's like..." and it's often spoken with a higher pitch.

I'm sorry if I've grated on your ears! :D

Thanks for posting the article, by the way, dan4th.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

These are interesting too:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002949.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creaky_voice
http://www.slate.com/id/2147008/?nav=navoa

But it seems to be the creak, as opposed to the use of "like" or the uptalk, that is striking me as odd.

Still wonder where it came from. Also wonder why i start speaking like an extra from the Sopranos whenever i hear it, like im trying to correct them or show that i'm not one of them.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh, and this one practically read my mind:

http://devoidofsubstance.blogspot.com/2006/08/city-girl-squawk.html

"Almost every girl I went to high school with talked in this way, and seeing as I go to NYU, largely populated by girls from the Northeast, I haven't escaped it. This accent has bothered me for a long time."

[krystynayt.livejournal.com]

Oh, come now; this is funny to discuss but it can't be so bad. And I'm not just saying this because this is how I talk. An accent is an accent; a mannerism is a mannerism. People use their mouths, tongues, throats and breath differently, despite what we see on American TV, where people are split up into "non-descript, non-twangy midwestern", "twangy southern" and "British".

I dunno. I love the variation. Everyone's got something weird and potentially irritating in their speech. "Proper" speech is a futile concept, which linguists from the Observer article noted. Pinker goes into this in The Language Instinct, too.

...this is what happens when you study linguistics. :)

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. It's fascinating.


I suspect that I may talk like this too. I go back and forth between Boston and Minneapolis and people out there are always baffled by my accent. People often ask me if I'm from California!

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I love the way people talk in Minnesota. It's sooo cute. My best friend from high school (we're from FL) went to college out there and she picked up some of the accent on certain words. :D Meanwhile, people in Boston think I have a Southern accent. Which I... kind of have...? But only in comparison to people who've never lived down south and thus sound horrible when they try to imitate the accent for comedic effect or something (read: almost everyone on TV or in the movies). Even my FL-born boyfriend, who normally talks like an NPR personality or something (he pronounces all wh- words with an inital H sound, like "white" = "hhwhite") can do the accent right when he wants to. It's in our blood or something.

Meanwhile, words I've learned since moving to Boston (mostly names of towns and T stops) I kind of pronounce with Boston vowel sounds. It started out as making fun of the T conductors, but now nothing else sounds right.

...Obviously I've had a little too much coffee before writing this post.