Uptalking: not Californian or Australian after all but, like, Irish? And, er, exclusively female?

September 21, 2001 4:08 AM

Uptalking: not Californian or Australian after all but, like, Irish? And, er, exclusively female? Well, whatever it is, it should be stamped out NOW.
posted by Summer (26 comments total)

I'd like some pancakes?
posted by machaus at 5:29 AM on September 21, 2001

Just for fun...you can translate the Guardian article into VALSpeak
posted by scotty at 5:39 AM on September 21, 2001

whatever it is, it should be stamped out NOW.

Operation Infinitive Justice?
posted by rory at 5:46 AM on September 21, 2001

It's not rare to hear this in Minnesota, even. I can still remember my New-York-born-and-raised mom harshly mocking me everytime I "upspoke" (uptalked? lol) as a kid. I'm so thankful for that now, because it doesn't slip by me when others do it, and I sure don't do it myself.

Can we blame Zappa for this?
posted by kittyb at 5:47 AM on September 21, 2001

This one time? At band camp..?
posted by jenwells at 5:58 AM on September 21, 2001

Operation Infinitive Justice?

:::groan:::
posted by rushmc at 6:02 AM on September 21, 2001

Whenever I hear it I say 'are you really asking a question?', to which I usually get the reply 'oh shut up you boring cow'. But I think I get my point across.
posted by Summer at 6:12 AM on September 21, 2001

Maybe we should be like grateful that there aren't too many voiceblogs...so...?
posted by scotty at 6:22 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:51 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:53 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:53 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:53 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:53 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't believe that someone could write an entire article on this without mentioning the word 'superficial'.
posted by ecvgi at 6:54 AM on September 21, 2001

Sextuple-post guy!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:26 AM on September 21, 2001

i have heard this phenominon refered to as Australia Questioning Intonation. Aparently it is rife in the suburbs of london, uk.
Personally, i like it. A kind of post-modern thing - people pre-empting the doubt of others.
posted by asok at 10:12 AM on September 21, 2001

congrats to ecvgi, maybe it's a record?
posted by asok at 10:13 AM on September 21, 2001

When I was a kid in New Zealand all the kids were talking like this? And that was in the seventies? And now people tell me this is popular in America? And people do it in England too? I think it's childish? Makes you sound like an idiot?
posted by dydecker at 10:47 AM on September 21, 2001

About halfway through reading the article, I decided to try down talking-- lowering the pitch at the end of each sentence.

I sounds just like Henry Kissenger.
posted by squinky at 10:47 AM on September 21, 2001

Asok, Australians are rife in the Suburbs of London ;c). As are New Zealanders, who are equally guilty/blessed with the upward intonation.

I like it. It gives speech a semi-musical quality.

I would say that. I do it. It does have a habit of mimicing a lullaby, and putting people to sleep.
posted by oddity at 10:49 AM on September 21, 2001

It sounds alright when Australians and NZs do it. When Californians do it it sounds bitchy and arrogant. Or maybe I've just seen Clueless too many times.
posted by Summer at 11:08 AM on September 21, 2001

As if!
Thanks, Summer.
It is annoying, at least to us question-asking aliens

Perhaps people should be made to carry little question-mark and full stop placards and brandish them at the end of each sentence, so the rest of us could stop wringing our brains trying to find non-committal answers to non-existing questions???
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:34 AM on September 21, 2001

About halfway through reading the article, I decided to try down talking-- lowering the pitch at the end of each sentence.

I sounds just like Henry Kissenger.

Or Dustin Hoffman in Papillion, or Rainman, or Midnight Cowboy, or The Graduate, or in anything he does.
posted by Summer at 12:20 PM on September 21, 2001

Is this really the time to be promoting a technical term high rise terminals?
posted by dhartung at 7:07 PM on September 21, 2001

Noted scholar Kylie Minogue used the termn rising inflection to describe the way Aussies and New Zealanders speak.

It truly is a superior form of pronunciation. Now if you could all just flatten your vowels too, the world will be a better place.
posted by Foaf at 9:43 PM on September 21, 2001

About halfway through reading the article, I decided to try down talking-- lowering the pitch at the end of each sentence.

I sounds just like Henry Kissenger.


That was funny? It made me laugh loud enough I think I frightened my neighbors?
posted by fidelity at 11:16 AM on September 22, 2001