Do you use question intonation, even when you’re not asking a question?

You may be an uptalker. Are you communicating something when you use it, or are you just driving people crazy?

Linguist Daniel Midgley takes it up a notch on this episode of Talk the Talk.


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63: Uptalk

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Show notes

The New York Times article that attracted my attention: Young Women Often Trendsetters in Vocal Patterns
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/science/young-women-often-trendsetters-in-vocal-patterns.html?_r=3

Another good article about it from the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/sep/21/referenceandlanguages.mattseaton

Some people call uptalk ‘high rising terminals’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal

But they shouldn’t.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002967.html

Some people think uptalk is annoying. (They never think to ask how the rest of us feel about them.)
http://www.diresta.com/Services/Does-Uptalk-Make-You-Upchuck/94-40.aspx

But some people don’t think it’s that bad.
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/In-Defense-of-Uptalk-and-Vocal-Fry

It’s an Australian thing.
http://linguistlist.org/issues/4/4-686.html#1

No, wait, it’s a New Zealand thing.
http://books.google.com.au/books?ei=MiZxT8j3D_HGmQXKrtm6Dw&id=seq3R-NfhLgC&dq=New+Zealand+ways+of+Speaking+English&q=intonation#v=snippet&q=intonation&f=false

George W. Bush used uptalk.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002708.html

Julia Gillard, not so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qihAbtd9yAo

Language Log is a great place to find out more about this.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=568