I talk like that. I don't notice it myself but people on the east coast have commented that everything I say sounds like a question. I consider it the same as a southern or Boston accent - I grew up in California and a lot of people speak like that. I had no idea it was so annoying to others, lol.

My pet peeves are people who yawn really loud or exaggerated and people who interrupt what I am saying to say "what?" I get that they missed the first part of what I said but most of the time they can figure it out if they just let me finish!

Very good dedtired.............

I heard a news story, probably on the radio, about this subject, and found the article about it. Seems like men are starting to talk that way, too?

Good article.

Here is a link that might be useful: Men are starting to do it, too

Ded, you crack me up!?

I find the "up-talk" annoying, also.

Chi83, I'm surprised you view this as an accent. I grew up in California, too, and have lived in many areas of the US. This is not a "California" or "West Coast" accent.

The up-talk phenomenon is fairly recent, and honestly, I only hear women and girls using it. I would classify it as a "style" of speaking, rather than as an "accent". I'd really be interested to know if you know a significant number of men using this style of speech.

Up-talking sounds as if you are uncertain about what you wish to communicate, and you are asking for validation. Honestly, if I'm listening to someone who sounds that needy - well, I do tune them out.

Oops - I missed Sushipup's article, which was very interesting.

But I stand firm on my annoyance at up-talk.

Househunters. International! We're moving to Romania (or wherever) to expose our children to a more culturally diverse experience ... but want the same lot space, square footage, open floor plan, stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, jetted tub, master bedroom, en suite., etc., that we had "at home" ... for 500.00 U.S. dollars a month.
I'm exagerating (sp?), but not by much.
No wonder the rest of the world hates us.

Don't watch the show but just can't stand uptalk. It's mostly young women, and it is sooooo annoying. Not only does everything end in a question, their modulation is strange.

What drives me nuts more than up talking is when people begin their answers with "I mean..." It's mostly younger people who do it, and I have no idea how it started, but I wish it would come to an abrupt end.

---

Example of a news correspondent interviewing a US Olympic athlete after their event:

News Correspondent: You just competed in your first Olympic event. How does it feel to know you're an Olympian?

Olympic Athlete: I mean, I was just so thrilled to be selected for the team. It's a dream come true for me.

News Correspondent: Well, you performed brilliantly in the training sessions. Do you think you'll be able to maintain that same level during the remainder of your competition?

Olympic Athlete: I mean, I sure hope so! It would be awesome to come home with a medal.

News Correspondent: What do you think about when you're competing? Do you think about the athletes who have already completed the event, or do you just think about what you're doing at that moment?

Olympic Athlete: I mean, of course the other athletes are on my mind, but I try to stay focused.

YES!!! Yes to the annoyance of up talk (in my opinion, it makes someone sound ditzy, and as though they are saying "right?" at the end of every sentence).

And yes to "I mean" as you've noted it. Where in the world did that come from? It's nonsense.

......and the female voices that sound so babyish. They usually go hand in hand with the up talk.

My son, who is in television production, also complains about the "up talking" (I never knew it was called that), and says he has a terrible time trying to get the on-air news people not to do it.

I heartily agree with the overuse of words like "I mean", "actually", and "amaaaaaazing". Everything seems to be amaaaaazing these days.

My latest TV pet peeve is the electronic 'thumping' sound that fills in scene transitions, or whatever you call it. I've noticed this lately on the NBC Morning Show. It used to be in the background all the time on House Hunters. Drove me crazy, so I wrote to the powers-that-be on the show. I haven't noticed it since on their more recently produced shows. I like to think they heard me!

Yes to the "I mean" and "amaaaaaazing". And absolutely yes to the sound of up talkers voices. Usually girls. Usually high pitched to start with. And they all sound like "valley girls" Oh my Gawd. It makes them sound uneducated and like, you know, I mean, the most important thing in the world is, like, how cute are these shoes?

I really am glad to know other people have noticed this irritating trend and don't like it. I thought I was getting grumpy, hahaha.

I had to youtube this term because I didn't know what you were talking about. I call it Valley Girl Talking. Yes, it's annoying, makes me think the person talking is like you know, like ......... an airhead.

Here is a link that might be useful: UpTalking

I've been told that the uptick of modulation in one's voice at the end of a statement sounds to the listeners as though one is uncertain ... that if one ends with a lowering tone, it sounds authoritative ... as though one is sure of one's self - decisive. Knows what s/he's talking about.

If you want to give the impression that you are a positive, knowledgeable person - a good candidate for hiring ... or having one's suggestion accepted and acted on - don't use that method of speaking!

I was going to bi!ch about (and isn't that a gender-specific term, for you?) the "amaaazing" thing, too ... and I have a couple of others: how about, "AB-solutely!!" (and did you ever hear someone, when discussing something unusual, use the term "inCREDible!")? [Spell-check doesn't like *several* words in this paragraph).

Isn't it incredible how some people talk?

Absolutely!

o j

Due to poor hearing, I also have problems with speakers, particularly when they're supposedly "pros" lowering their tone at the end of sentences.

The last minister at our church had this problem, and I've also noticed when listening to or watching Chris Kimball on America's Test Kitchen he's very guilty of this. The sentence just sort of fades away to nothing.

Young women's voices can be very irritating regardless of what they're expounding on. Wouldn't it be nice if people would make a tape of themselves talking and then play it back.

To hijack and expand on OJ's comment about gender-specific 'terms,' did you ever notice that most epithets meant to insult are feminine in nature? I find this incredibly insulting!

Sorry, Katlan.

Hi again sjerin,

"God" gets involved in that quite a lot, also.

Possibly less so by the folks who claim that they don't believe in "Him" ... ("Her" ... as the case may be).

We've had three ministers in our church in the past 30+ years of its existence ... two of them female.

(Did you say, "incredibly" - as in "unbelievably"?)

o j

The movie "In A World" is about the voice-over business. The female lead character also coaches people -- primarily women -- to improve their speech.

One young woman student has both the Valley Girl speech pattern and a vocal pitch that makes her "sound like a squeaky toy". Unsurprisingly, she's getting nowhere in her interviews to become a corporate attorney. Her resume looks good, but who would hire an attorney who doesn't sound like an adult; who can't present her thoughts in a concise manner; who seems to be begging your approval by phrasing everything as a question; and who...squeaks?

(I can't recommend this movie, although it had some funny bits. It was too 'inside Hollywood' -- made about and for other people within the business.)

As for your difficulty hearing your minister, maxmom, (s)/he needs some voice training.

When one lowers one's tone at the end of a sentence, one doesn't just let it trail off, getting quieter, one lowers the note levels, as in "doh, re, mi", but not the decibels, keeps the voice strong and projects (for clergy - that's to hit the back wall of the auditorium).

ole joyful

I very, very much get annoyed with background music with lyrics playing on a television show. The words of the song interferes with the words being spoken. Even WORSE is when I have closed captions turned on during programs because the characters speak too fast. Now I also get to read the lyrics sandwiched between the dialog. Wish they would just have instrumental music...or NONE. (And I'm a music lover.)

Yeah, OJ, I used that word in fun, re your post. :)

Do any of you watch the television show Parenthood? We really like it, however, the constant use of *I mean* * you know* etc. is almost enough to drive you to turn off the t.v. but .. but .. it's such a good program .. sigh ..

I hate trying to watch the news on tv and having much of the screen obliterated by time/date/temperature/rolling script top and bottom of screen etc. I find it very distracting. Satine

I believe the I mean and the you know have replaced the word well that used to be the start word of a comment.

I agree that almost nothing is amazing any more, or even awesome.A while back a similar thread was running here at the KT and I commented on the fact that for every baby pic that was posted the baby was described as adorable.

What really irritates me is the news anchors all talk too fast and too low. Please, just slow down and speak up.

Sue

I didn't know "up talking" had a name. I knew one person who spoke like that, and I always thought it made her sound helpless. Chi83, maybe you'd better start working on this. :-)

My pet peeve of today is on a different topic: online product reviews (on Amazon, for example) that have nothing to do with the product. People will give an item only one star because it was sent to the wrong address, or because they misunderstood what it was supposed to do, or because they got it as a gift from their brother-in-law, who should have known they already had one.

Tonight I read a review of a brand of soy lecithin. It says right on the label: SOY LECITHIN. The person gave it only one star because "I didn't know it was made out of soy."

"up talking" for sure but now our newsreaders are doing a new annoying thing. They get to the end of the story .... a n d ....... j u s t ...... r u n ........ d o w n.

And another thing!! They tell almost the whole story but we have to come back after the break for the punch line. Just tell it!! If I have time to listen, I have time. I'll be there. If I have to leave, your trailer isn't going to keep me in front of the TV so I can find out the rest of the story. How long could it possibly take to finish what you're saying? Maybe take the time ..... from...... the ...... example ........ above.

Thanks for the laughs, Alisande! (Didn't know it was really, really SOY eh?)

By those standards I should complain about our new mattress because the delivery driver failed to call to confirm he was really, really *coming* -- and let the delivery window slip by before he came. I was sure we'd have another night on a lumpy mattress! Plus, now I need a step ladder to climb into bed -- another *fault*! Who knew when they described a king mattress with a 12" thickness that it would be a foot high!

Along with the "up" talking, I dislike the drawing out of the last word of the sentence...."We went to the beeeeach. Then we took a waaaaalk. Everything was so cleeear".....it's always the last word...I hear that a lot.

I agree with redcurls. It is so annoying. WHY do they have loud background music playing so you can't hear what is being said and people speak so fast sometimes that the closed captioning disappears before you have a chance to even see it much less read it. I'm always asking my daughter, "What did they say?" And they put the words to the background song in the closed captioning! ARG! if I'm alone I rewind it to try and figure out what was being said.

I've noticed a lot of people speek really fast, now. Many talk shows are hard to listen to as people talk faster an louder over each other. The same on some news shows. I guess I' better start taking notes and start complaining to the offending shows.

I also agree with all the other comments on the Valley Girl talk. I mean, like ya know?

When I was working in the ' 80's here in Hawaii, several young women would end every sentence with "yeah?" I'm going to lunch, yeah? I'm taking this downstairs, yeah? My son's hone sick today, yeah? Ya know what I mean, yeah?

Another thing I notice a lot is how many people have a lisp. Even some TV news people have a slight lisp. Is that hard to correct? Some parents think that it's cute. If my girls mispronounced a word or sound when they were learning to talk had them look at my mouth and mimic me.

last week my DD was talking to her friend who had just gotten a puppy. Her DD wanted to name it Sophie or Zoe. My DD said don't name it Sophie because too many have a speech impediment now. So many lisp that her friends will call it Thofie or Thoph. Just then she heard in the background a little girl with a lisp. It was a friend of her daughter. DD said, "See! i told you. The girl will call the puppy Thophie! The puppy is now Zoe.

*People with a lisp can't pronounce the word lisp.

Don't get me started on how many people use the F word ALL the time. They can't seem to talk without using it several times in every sentence.

Here is a link that might be useful: Making the

Oh, those modern mattresses! I love mine now, but when I first got it several years ago I almost cried because it seemed to me it swallowed up my nice beadboard bed. It was actually higher than the footboard, which was not the way I'd envisioned it.

Of course I later made it worse by putting foam on top. I can foresee a time when I might have trouble getting into it. Sometimes when my knees are hurting it's awkward at best.

We always say that the (always) women in radio/TV ads who talk a certain way are "chipmunks". I tune them out automatically and cannot tell you what they are advertising. I can't quite write it out, but you probably know what I mean.

Chipmunk....

Something that really annoys me is that people now never use "me". Instead, "I" is used incorrectly, such as "come meet with John and I", or "our son came to visit my husband and I".

I thinks people have come to fear using "me" incorrectly, so the word is hardly ever used anymore! Now "I" is being used, frequently incorrectly.

In the above examples, the speaker would never (I hope) use "we" instead of "us"!

In the exteme, the other night, I heard some use "I" in a possessive way: "I love the way John's and I's (!!!!!) kitchen turned out".

Just my rant!

Ellen

Something that really annoys me is that people now never use "me". Instead, "I" is used incorrectly, such as "come meet with John and I", or "our son came to visit my husband and I".

I thinks people have come to fear using "me" incorrectly, so the word is hardly ever used anymore! Now "I" is being used, frequently incorrectly.

In the above examples, the speaker would never (I hope) use "we" instead of "us"!

In the exteme, the other night, I heard some use "I" in a possessive way: "I love the way John's and I's (!!!!!) kitchen turned out".

Just my rant!

Ellen

Ellen, the horrid usage that I hate is an improper verb form, as in "I am wanting a recipe of bread" instead of "I want a recipe" or even "I am looking for a recipe". This has become so common and it really grates on my nerves. "I am wanting a vacation" or whatever. Errrrrrrr!

This post was edited by sushipup on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 14:22

Agreed, Sushi!!!

This is all news to me...I've never thought of it before. I'm from the south, the Houston area, and I talk like crazy stupid sounding but I DO NOT HEAR THIS in my head when I'm speaking. I can imagine that they've grown up around it and it's just how they've trained themselves to speak and are unaware of this annoying habit.

I've been hearing things like instead of "didn't" they will say "di-int" or instead of "curtains" it's "cur-ins"...that drives me crazy.

I guess it would be rude to mention names here, so I won't, but there is one TV "personalty" that lets her voice get so screechy that it grates on my nerves. And if she feels like she just must remind us again that she is a recovered alcoholic, I'll screetch! Actually; I just don't tune in to her show any more.

And I don't under stand why some shows line up a panel of guests, and then let them talk all over each other, including the host. SAY WHAT? I've given up on those shows, too. And they are on the same channel, which used to be one of my favorites.

Sue

A couple of pet peeves that I can think of. One is grammatical......"her and I". Oh that grates on my nerves!!

Another is our morning news program. They only give the guests a couple of minutes, and they either get cut off before they are done their segment, or they rush through it. Cooking segments are done like this all the time. Another is our favourite horticulturist. I wanted to see his segment on houseplants, and he didn't even get to talk about them, because his time was over, when he was talking about another plant. Geesh, if you're going to have them on, give them time!

Like others mentioned, the background music on tv drowns out the dialogue. Horrible.

Ellen, along the same lines, what had happened to grammar that causes people to now say "Me and Jim are going. . . "? "Me" and . . . . seems to be what even those who should know better seem to think is correct these days.

I've heard people say that if some trend is used long enough it becomes the norm and acceptable. Oh, I sure hope not!

An very annoying practice some have, that seems to be much too prevalent - using an apostrophe for a non-possessive plural:

I'm accumulating a file of different brownie recipe's.

Two or more items is not apostrophe s!! Grrrrr!

snidely, looks like we both had the same thought. You got here first.

One other thing in general, don't know as it could be called a pet peeve. Why must ALL the daytime tv shows be the exact same formula? Panel of hostesses. Guest celebrity host. Hollywood gossip. Cooking segment. Make over. Even Rachel Ray did it. A cooking show that isn't. It's a catch 22. We watch because that's all that's on and they keep producing crap because we watch it. There really isn't a reason to have a TV these days.

I never watch/ed Survivor but I did like Jeff Probst's daytime show. He got cancelled. The formula shows are still on, I guess. I found a very relaxing thing to do instead of watch. Turn the TV off. Listen to the quiet. Isn't it wonderful! and then I loose track of time because there isn't anything to break into my train of thought.

Oh, yeah! The apostrophe is my biggest peeve.

Here's one: a specially engraved wood sign that hangs on someone's house that says The Smith's. I want to go up to the door and say, "The Smith's what?" Plural RARELY NEEDS AN APOSTROPHE, PEOPLE! There are very few particular cases which require an apostrophe to make a plural.

And here's another: it's. Don't use the apostrophe unless you can substitute the words "it is." You only use it's when it is a contraction of "it is."

Since we're on the topic of grammar, I hate when I see 'your' and "you're" mixed up. I see it on posters, online, almost everywhere.

Your is a possession......your handbag, your name.
You're is You are.

I know that I have been absentmindedly typing along and have written your instead of you're or vice versa. I have also mixed up their, there, and they're by just not paying attention even though I do know the difference. This is not out of stupidity, it's out of fingers and brain not being in sync or I guess that IS STUPIDITY...HAHA! Once on FB, a person that I know had been making a huge DEAL out of screwing up you're and then one day it happened...HE SCREWED IT UP so I naturally brought it to his attention and he was not at all pleased that I told him...needless to say we are no longer "friends" on FB..LMAO!

Something that's been bugging me and it may be perfectly correct but the use of "whilst" and "smelt" and I'm sure there are others. I was under the impression that "smelt" had to do with the melting of metals but I have been seeing it used when referring to fragrances. I was reading a book on dog obedience the other day and he used "whilst" ALL THE TIME. I guess it's regional? I'm sure that when we are speaking, we do not SAY "whilst". Right?

A few months back I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said:

Let's eat, grandma.

Let's eat grandma.

Correct punctuation saves lives!

"Whilst" is somewhat normal in British usage, but (in my experience) it can come off as being a bit of an affectation. Even to some Brits. As in someone acting pseudo-pensively and trying to express something profound.

I have 2:

1: The use of "I" instead of "me"

2: pronouncing HEIGHT as HeighTH. It ends in a hard T, not a TH! That one drives me batty!