To hate it when people go up at the end of their sentences even when it’s not a question?

[zzzzzzzz12345]

Listening to R4 while getting ready for work. There was a segment on jackdaws and them being able to count. Woman researcher sounded like an Australian without the accent. She went up at the end of every clause, never mind sentence, like this: so jackdaws mob together? Then they call to other jackdaws? And It’s dangerous for other jackdaws to join the mob? (Poetic licence on content but you get my drift). Why? What on earth has led to this bizarre phenomenon?

Rising inflexion. I haven't heard it so much recently among non Australians but every single friend who went travelling came back with it, as did I.

I hate it too. It seems to have led to people insisting on putting a question mark at the end of sentences unnecessarily too 😩

But why? I go on holiday most years but don’t return with a Greek/French/African accent. How can that play such a massive part in how a whole generation seems to speak?

YABU for judging another person based on intonation and accent.

I blame Neighbours.

It's awful and annoying.

People should be horsewhipped for doing it.

Tulips - welcome to Aibu. Have you entirely missed its point?

I.heard a theory that it was because those of us that are of a,certain age spent a huge part of our youth watching Neighbours and Home and Away ?They were both massively popular in the 80,s .

Drifting I was the neighbours/home and away daily marathon generation. I don’t do this. It feels like it’s a generation younger but maybe I’m just getting old (a bit like thinking lots of my kids music is just noise, like my parents thought of mine)

Yes, we used to say too much Neighbours? It seems to be an American thing as well though? It drives me mad? That and saying, like, like every other like few words?

Hi @zzzzzzzz12345

No, I don’t think I did miss the point. You asked ‘am I being unreasonable’ I posted YABU. I think that is how the threads usually work.

I think it might be the OP who has missed the point tbf

We ARE allowed to say yes, YABU.
I often find the people who complain about other people's linguistic quirks are the ones who could do with looking at their own use of English before throwing those stones.

I hate it, it makes grown adults sound like teenage wanna be Australians

Was she from the West Midlands? It’s very common in certain areas. It’s a subconscious thing, people don’t know they’re doing it. So you may find it irritating but I don’t think most people do it on purpose!

More recently this habit has been replaced by a worse one among young women - vocal fry. Horrible to listen to.

This has been a thing for years. Vocal fry is worse.

My friend of 20 years has just started to do this. Why???

It's a fairly common thing in Australia, part of the accent over there. Same way South Australian/Adelaide accents are quite comically "bouncy" and Kiwi accents mix their vowel sounds up. I could make threads about things in other accents that irritate me, too. For example it annoys me when people substitute "th" for "f" and say things like "barf" instead of "bath". But it's just an accent thing. It's how people talk and you cant change that.

This might help...

.Drifting Leaves it right; it was Neighbours. That means we're on the second or even third generation now.

I think that means Ozspeak has officially graduated from a pidgin to a creole!

When I taught secondary English in Oz lo these many years ago, I agonised over whether to work in helping students eliminate it for public speaking or whether that made me a cultural imperialist. I still don't know!

Nearly as annoying as begining a post with "so"

DD (23) does this - she also says “haitch”, both make me slightly antsy. She has never watched Neighbours and no one else in immediate family does it. Maybe it was a teenage rebellion

“An Australian” here. Many generations. I believe you are referring to upward inflection. My voice never inflects upwardly unless I am asking a question. Neither do any of my friends’ or family members’ voices. YABVU.

Is it possible that the rising inflection is in place of “are you listening?” ?

It’s similar to when people stick multiple “yeahs?” Into the middle of what they are telling you.

I believe that either consciously or subconsciously it is inviting a sign of acknowledgement from the person they are talking to. They want them to smile or nod or respond with an uh huh or something.

It is annoying, but interesting too.

It's called a high rising terminal, a lot of women (thought obviously not exclusively) seem to use it as a form of social appeasement in my experience. Can't stand it.