Upspeak

“Where did you get that terrific haircut?” I asked my friend Gail. Mario Max? she answered. I’m guessing the year was 1977, and Gail had been living in Southern California for a time. I realized that she was no longer a Michigan girl, but had embraced all that was the San Fernando Valley. Yes, my highly educated friend had somehow morphed into a “valley girl,” complete with the sing-songey voice cadence and the “you know” interjections. I couldn’t believe my ears. Worse, after being around her a while I found myself doing some of it. Yikes, I hate to admit that, but give me a break I was still in my 20’s.

I bring this up because lately there’s been some buzz in the media about “upspeak” or “uptalk” as it as come to be called. I refer back to Gail’s Mario Max answer. When responding to someone’s question, the answer comes back sounding like a question. Where are you from? You’re asked. Mt. Morris, Michigan? You answer with a rising pitch. Get it? I’ll bet right now you’re thinking of someone who does this often. Most likely it’s your granddaughter. You see, I learned from NPR (National Public Radio) and some online research, that this has become so widespread that linguists have now labeled it a dialect. Some are even predicting that as the twenty-something generation comes into power in the business place, that it will be fully acceptable.

I’ve been trying to decide how I feel about this. As some of you know, I’ve used this space to harangue about the over use of the word “like” and the useless use of the word “basically.” I can’t help it, somebody has to speak out about the decline of our language.

So, I will relate an incident that happened in my day job workplace. Two young women who I like very much were my co-workers one Saturday. Both are intelligent and educated. I was overhearing a conversation they were having, and both interjected the word “like” about twice per sentence. With good humor and no judgmental tone, I told them that I would give them each $10.00 at the end of the shift if they could eliminate “like” from their speech. They smiled and said okay, it’s a deal. They lasted five minutes and ten minutes respectively.

While both were noticeably embarrassed about it, they conceded that it would be almost impossible to undo this habit. They even mentioned that their parents are annoyed that their college educated women are sounding so schoolgirlish. The truth is that this is peer speak as I see it. If most everyone around you does it, you do too.

I now cite something my friend Carol told me about her high school senior Nick. (Nick was a computer prodigy who went on to attend Amherst and publish a book and become an icon at Google.) So, Carol would overhear Nick talking on the phone or to his friends in the next room, and he would use “like” every fourth word and other expressions that gagged her. Then, when he was just around the family or other adults, he didn’t do any of it. He was able to censor his vernacular based on his audience. She thought that was pretty cool. I did too.

Now, back to the upspeak controversy. It doesn’t annoy me at all really. I just file it with people with foreign accents. It’s just part of the fabric of our multicultural surroundings these days.

There is someone else out there though who eschews the use of upspeak. My old friend Judge Judy. Yes, watching her cut to the chase and expose the bad guys is one of my guilty pleasures. When someone answers her with upspeak, she replies, “You’re asking me?”