...to find 'upspeak' intensely annoying?

[garliclover]

Because it makes young people sound, like, really unsure of themselves? And, like, really quite thick?

I find it particularly annoying and depressing that teenage girls are the worst culprits: it makes even intelligent young women sound shallow, and quite frankly, inarticulate.

The other depressing thing is that it seems to be infecting much younger children, and most worryingly, even older generations who should know better!

Rant over.

Meh.

I did it when I was a teenager and it drove my mother mad (I'm now 35). Then I grew out of it. Then my 5 years younger DB started doing it and he also stopped.

So it's been around for at least 20 years and people, like, grow out of it?

I think it's an insecurity thing - always looking for agreement even when it's a statement.

I agree its annoying though.

There are worse things I reckon. I find it incredibly, incredibly cringey when you have children/teens/tweens from a not particularly urban middle class background who try and do that ghetto/gangsta type speak. And when they are first trying to do it they get it a bit wrong (not that I'd know how to do it right) and you just want to say "JUST BE YOURSELF!!!"

I'd rather that than the American slang coming out of my childs orifice at the moment

Mind you I apparently have a speach affliction according to said child, like Miranda's mum in the tv series. I "shout" the embarrassing words that should be whispered in a sentence.

You know who I reckon speaks really well, Miranda Hart. She's posh but not in a affected way, nice tone to her voice, enough graduation and intonation to make her sound interesting but nothing overdone, if that makes sense.

oops, speech.

Oh no, AWimbaWay, I add 'no' to the end of questions too! I do it knowing that it's an affectation (so can't complain about upspeak, really), but hoping I can get away with it because I come from Spain where people do that all the time.

You're allowed if you're Spanish garliclover [hsmile].

ok cant figure out whether i am thick or just lazy but have skimmed through this thread and still dont understand what upspeak is????

Your sentence is upspeak . It's when you add an inflection to your voice at the end of a sentence, turning a statement into a question. So (and it's normally teenage girls) someone will say "I went home" but go up in intonation at the end of the sentence so it comes out as "I went home?"

AWimbaWay, your name is evil. I'm now singing the stupid song and it'll be with me alllll day...

Normal over here (Australia). Perhaps you should ban everyone from watching Aussie soaps. Not that they all do it on there but still. Interestingly, many aussie yoof have developed a bizarre hybrid accent that is some weird cross between South African, Australian and American. Their vowels are shot to buggery. It's VERY annoying.

I clicked on this thread to find out what upspeak was and now I have a name for something I hate with a passion

YANBU

YANBU? It's so annoying? It doesn't even make sense?

This was brought up on a course I attended. The speaker said that people who were using it were doing themselves a disservice because ending a sentence confidently was to lower the tone on the last word.

I've noticed my DD doing this but expect she will grow out of it.

I did notice many people did it when I was travelling, mainly because they had spent time in Aus.

I picked it up a few years back when I was working with a bunch of Northerners, I don't even notice when I slip into it yet find it the most aggravating thing when others do it! I've worked with Aussies a lot too but have never noticed it in them!

YANBU

Oh like brummies you mean, where everything they say sounds like a question? Oh I get it now didn't realise there was a name for it, so educational this MN

We all do it in our house (well, those of us old enough to talk) but we don't have UK accents so I guess thats more acceptable?

Actually, I'm not sure 'upspeak' is the recognised name for it. It's something my DP and I came up with when ranting at each other about how annoying it is. So you see, that's how we pass the long winter evenings.

kenobi, I have since discovered it should be Wimoweh, I'm irrationally irritated by my incorrect spelling but not enough to bother changing it.

garliclover, I think it is called upspeak, I've heard the term used before.

Oh, is it? I thought my DP invented it and then I assigned myself the credit too . Maybe he's not such a genius after all...

Think it's just called an interrogative sentence or question inflection? not sure though. It was on my course when I studied English Language at uni but that was a very, very long time ago.

There are lots of different words for it, upspeak is one recognised term.

Uptalk...making a sentence sound like a question is the most irtitating thing ever!!!..Why do people have to copy each other?. No one is unique anymore. Coly copy copy. It is annoying. What are you supposed to say when someone says theur name like it is a question?...Is it really?.Wow..you actually have a name? U DUMBO.