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Miguel, sad to say, but that is now how an enormous number of young women speak today, including my granddaughter, y' know. And, y' know, a lot of young men, credentialed young men, interviewed on TV programs of varying degrees of seriousness, y' know, repeatedly interlard their, y' know, responses, y' know, with y' know.
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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
It started about 30 years ago and originally was termed "Valley Girl" talk, as Kiko points out. Runner mentions the ubiquitous "Y' know," which is one more piece of evidence of the decline of articulate speech. In fact, for some time there has been a decline in both spoken and written English. It's scary to think about how written English will look two generations from now, after "texting" has become the primary mode of communication.
Oh well, C U soon.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
The next step is actually already occurring. First, they substituted "like" for a handful of other verbs and constructions. Now, they are substituting pictures to save themselves the trouble of actually writing out, in their own words, what they felt or did.
Miguel, what do you think? Are we reaching a point where we will be mute, having lost the capacity to engage in articulate speech? Will we eventually converse via flash cards? No speech, just flash cards with the appropriate picture that conveys, at least roughly, the idea we want to get across? And our interlocutors reply with flash cards that bear some resemblance to a response? (Using flash cards couldn't be any more inarticulate than much of the speech one hears today.) Yet again, further evidence that after the long evolutionary journey to walking upright comes the descent to knuckle-dragging once again.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
It's okay, Bill, things just march on. Probably within a generation or two, people will be hardwired to machines that will spare them the need to even use their vocal chords--they will just communicate by wifi. They could flash these memes to each other without even having to say "I was like". Even without changing the brain's processing speed, certain types of communication will happen rapidly indeed. For areas without wifi, they might incorporate a syrinx that could transmit the data through audible sound--like an old modem. They will find it hard to communicate with their parents. And I doubt they will have the attention span to spare on Mozart with so many rapid transactions demanding their attention. Their awareness will make the MSNBC or Fox News programs, with their constantly scrolling stocks and headlines, seem hopelessly staid.
It's okay, Bill, things just march on. Probably within a generation or two, people will be hardwired to machines that will spare them the need to even use their vocal chords--they will just communicate by wifi.
You've called me out as the Luddite that I am, Miguel. I'm talking about using flash cards to communicate, and you are talking about people being hardwired to machines and communicating by WiFi.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
You could place me in the same category, just a little further down the line. Here we are in the space age, playing instruments little changed from Torres, using strings that are essentially cheap versions of animal intestine, music of an antique nature. Whereas it seems most guitarists own racks of effects and suitcases full of pedals, I have only recently relented and bought a looper.
Vocal Fry is also called "down speak" by speech pathologists, and according to one who I heard interviewed not long ago, she said the trend is coming to an end. Down speak is on the down slope.
She said the problem was very widespread in the mid 2000's but now is lessening. The reason is because fewer media commentators are doing it after it became an industry problem in pronunciation and vocal health.