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.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlShow 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
