In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
The New York Times today has a fascinating article about how young women often act as society's trendsetters in vocal patterns that are later adopted by the population at large. Two such patterns: uptalk and vocal fry — both which have been scoffed at here on Ricochet.
Uptalk, or "high-rising terminal", is a linguistic pattern whereby declarative sentences (those that end in periods) are instead spoken with a questioning intonation (the speaker switches out the period for a question mark).
Starting in America with the Valley Girls of the 1980s (after immigrating from Australia, evidently), uptalk became common among young women across the country by the 1990s.
In the past 20 years, uptalk has traveled “up the age range and across the gender boundary,” said David Crystal, a longtime professor of linguistics who teaches at Bangor University in Wales. “I’ve heard grandfathers and grandmothers use it,” he said. “I occasionally use it myself.”
Even an American president has been known to uptalk. “George W. Bush used to do it from time to time,” said Dr. Liberman, “and nobody ever said, ‘Oh, that G.W.B. is so insecure, just like a young girl.’ ”
In the podcast that accompanies the NY Times article, linguistics Professor David Crystal discusses how uptalk functions in rather sophisticated ways in conversation. It can be used to ensure that the fellow converser is following along in conversation by forcing him to acknowledge that he's tracking (with a "right" or "uh-huh", for example) after every sentence or two. Alternatively, uptalk can be employed for efficiency's sake to condense a declarative sentence and a question into one. For example, if you were to ask me where I grew up, I could respond, "Aptos, California. Do you know where that is?" Or I could respond, "Aptos, California?" to gauge whether more explanation was necessary depending on whether my uptalk produced a confused look in your eyes, or a firm nod to indicate that you know that Aptos is a great coastal town in Santa Cruz County about 90 miles south of San Francisco.
Vocal fry, or creaky voice, similarly serves a number of conversational functions, according to linguists.
Ikuko Patricia Yuasa, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, called it a natural result of women’s lowering their voices to sound more authoritative.
It can also be used to communicate disinterest, something teenage girls are notoriously fond of doing.
“It’s a mode of vibration that happens when the vocal cords are relatively lax, when sublevel pressure is low,” said Dr. Liberman. “So maybe some people use it when they’re relaxed and even bored, not especially aroused or invested in what they’re saying.”
Ever since I saw a post over on Ann Althouse's blog about how stupid and obnoxious women who employ vocal fry sound, I've been terribly self conscious about my own abuse of this vocal pattern. And I have to confess, I find myself slipping into creaky voice mode quite a lot, especially in phone conversations with family members. But I take mild solace in this:
“If women do something like uptalk or vocal fry, it’s immediately interpreted as insecure, emotional or even stupid,” said Carmen Fought, a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. “The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships.”
The idea that young women serve as incubators of vocal trends for the culture at large has longstanding roots in linguistics. As Paris is to fashion, the thinking goes, so are young women to linguistic innovation.
That's right. Using speech patterns which some deride as sounding irritating, I'm building relationships in an innovative way? Or something like that.
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Comments:
Aug '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Gee... I don't recall Welsh always going up in pitch at the end, though it doesn't always go down as much as English. You can listen for yourself here. Seems to me it goes way up for a question (no surprise). For a statement, it goes down, slightly down, the same, or perhaps very slightly up on the very last syllable, depending on the word.
Aug '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Amy Schley:
That being said, Liv Tyler's vocal fry inLord of the Rings was necessary for her to be taken seriously as a character. Had Arwen had the same squeaky voice Liv uses in all her interviews, no one would believed that love story ...
Well, that's just it. I've had some voice teachers try to get me to speak English where my voice naturally lies, and I can't stand myself. I sound like some mincing, pansy drag queen. Like I'm talking baby-talk all the time.
I can't take myself seriously in that register, so I keep dropping down to the lower one, even though it's rougher and more tiring.
May '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Oh boy, I'm probably going to regret saying this. I hear it all day in my classes. But when I started hearing it in the "Young Guns" podcasts....well, I just can't listen to it anymore, as much as I enjoy the analysis.
Jan '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Vocal fry. Didn't know there was a name for that incredibly irritating thing the female DJ on the alternative station here in San Diego does with her voice, though I'm sure she thinks she sounds really cool. I can't listen for more than 10 seconds.
Nov '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
We Canadians were using uptalk, like, long before the Valley Girls, eh?
Sep '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Both are annoying. I find it as annoying as someone who overly uses "like" instead of said (as in "I was like" or "He was like"). What's worse is uptalk is becoming more and more in males. It's bad enough to hear from women but to hear it from a male is really sad. I was recently at a tech conference where two young men from Facebook were on a panel. I had to leave after ten minutes because literally every sentence was spoken with uptalk.
Dec '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Gee... I don't recallWelsh always going up in pitch at the end, though it doesn't always go down as much as English. You can listen for yourself here. Seems to me it goes way up for a question (no surprise). For a statement, it goes down, slightly down, the same, or perhaps very slightly up on the very last syllable, depending on the word. · 1 hour ago
My exposure to Welsh melodic speech comes mainly from the many Joneses in the detachment at Roarke's Drift.
Dec '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Have you noticed the new tendency for people to start their spoken paragraphs with "So"?
Apr '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
I worked with a very confident 30-something guy from an ivy league school who would often uptalk. I couldn't decide whether he was being patronizing, was was trying to soften orders to junior members of the team that he needed to direct but wasn't officially authorized to boss around or it was just a speech quirk. He would say things like: "This function could be simplified? so code could do X? and that would fix Y?"
He definitely was not talking this way due to a lack of confidence and I'm curious about whether he was consciously was doing it or had picked it up in his ivy league school.
Apr '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Stuart Creque
Have you noticed the new tendency for people to start their spoken paragraphs with "So"? · 18 minutes ago
Yeah, me. I always get dinged on that at Toastmasters during table topics.
May '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Stuart Creque
Have you noticed the new tendency for people to start their spoken paragraphs with "So"? · 29 minutes ago
(cartoon from www.xkcd.com)
Edited on February 28, 2012 at 7:09amRe: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Like, chuh?
Feb '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
I have no idea what this vocal fry thing is and the George Sanders clip doesn't help.
I do know what uptalk is (As when I learned the term "ADD," I said to myself "Oh, it has a name!") and it drives me nuts.
You say "So what are you studying?" and she says "psychology?" Is that supposed to mean "Is that OK with you?" or "Do you know what that is?"
Not being a reader of fiction, I wonder if writers use a question mark.
Dec '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Uptalk I understood very well, but I had to do a little research to get the full effect of vocal fry. This video helped, but I have to admit that I found her normal speaking voice almost as irritating as her fry tone speech.
Apr '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Stuart Creque
Have you noticed the new tendency for people to start their spoken paragraphs with "So"? · 8 hours ago
A recent high-profile example? Meg Whitman in campaign interviews. She was on Hugh Hewitt's show and would begin every response with, "So."
It struck me like business speak neo-logisms, but in this case over doing the advice to clearly acknowledge an asker's question. In that sense, it's somewhat patronizing.
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Here's the Althouse blog post I referenced earlier. It includes a video with an example of vocal fray.
Jan '11
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Whatever!
Jun '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Excellent!Another that I'm seeing quite often, particularly in college students and faculty, is the lilting, sing-songy tone taken when listing things in conversation. Each noun is pronounced low at the start, climbs in pitch, then drops precipitously to move on to the next. It drives me to distraction.
May '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
I can't think of what you're talking about. Is there an audio example somewhere?
Dec '10
Re: In Defense of Uptalk and Vocal Fry
Mark Wilson
I can't think of what you're talking about. Is there an audio example somewhere? · 57 minutes ago
I think it's like "The Tigger Song" in the part where Tigger sings:
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN