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Dave Kopperman
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Joined: 27 December 2004
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

The setting: the local supermarket.  An exchange between myself (male, white, 52) and a clerk (female, white, 20-something).  

The scenario: my wife has listed a product I don't recognize. I assume it's something in the health food section, but can't find it there,

Me: (waving to clerk) Hey, pardon me - can you tell me where the (checks phone) Glucerna chocolate is?

Clerk: That's a drink?

Me: (musing the possibility) Oh, yeah - maybe it is a drink.

Clerk: (suddenly irked) No, I KNOW it's a drink.  It's in aisle thirteen!

Lights down.  The narrator enters, stage left, tracked by spotlight.

Narrator: This exchange has been brought to you by the intersection between generations and the emergence of upspeak.



Edited by Dave Kopperman on 20 May 2022 at 2:22pm
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John Byrne
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Now, let's break down this conversation.

You had it with her once.

She has the equivalent with someone like you (and many who are REALLY rude) forty times a day.

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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Oh, yeah, I TOTALLY agree. Note that I'm casting myself as the clueless straight man, here. Having worked several years in retail I always go into (and come out of) every exchange with as much empathy as possible.
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Ryan Maxwell
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

My wife watches a lot of reality TV, including a bunch of dating shows. I tend to stay out of the room on purpose, but once in a while I'll pay attention to what's going on.  There is an unbelievable amount of usage of the words "like" and "literally", as well as upspeak. I don't know where folks currently in their teens and 20's are getting it, but it's incredibly widespread right now.  I've literally heard like, like literally 5-6 times in, like, a single sentence?
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Like, almost 30 years ago, even Gen-Xers were uptalking, which like makes you literally insane, doing it enough to, like, make the major news and headlines...



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Ryan Maxwell
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

It would make for a quick, fatal drinking game! 
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Dave Kopperman
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I tend to think of them as regional things, both specific to Southern California (which does tend to be a trend-setter for a lot of cultural aspects).  I lived in Orange County from 1980-81 when I was ten, and definitely picked up my own unfortunate tendency to say 'like' as a placeholder there - though I honestly couldn't say that it's a step down from the alternative of me just saying 'uhhhhhhh' all the time.

Upspeak, and its cousin vocal fry, probably really spread in usage from the Kardashians, of all people. It certainly led to the baseline assumption that Kim Kardashian was a clueless airhead, rather than the intelligent and shrewd brand manager and businesswoman that she is.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Being British, I do find upspeak odd. Say it like you mean it!
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Michael Roberts
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Joined: 20 April 2004
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Posted: 20 May 2022 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

I find upspeak more noticeable in Australian and Canadian accents than American ones. 
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 21 May 2022 at 5:21am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Anyone got kids? Current kids?

I have a 12 year old & run kids clubs.

They all use it, & I’m in the UK, in the Black Country.

Because they all watch YouTube & everyone uses it on there.



Language, aspects of speech changes over time.

I used to fight this, be annoyed by it, but I moved to the Midlands in my late
teens from Yorkshire.

My accent changed - you can still tell I’m from Yorkshire, but I realised
something really changed when I was @ a bar in Yorkshire a few years ago
& got asked by the staff if I was from the Midlands.



Whether we like it or nor, this will forever change.
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Dave Phelps
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Posted: 21 May 2022 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Upspeak or no, she probably should've opened with "aisle thirteen."  Might've saved her some annoyance.
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 22 May 2022 at 1:31am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

I have kids, 29 and 28, and then the two young ones, 14 and 11.

None of them upspeak.

I live on Long Island, New York.

(Yes, "on" Long Island, like we also say you stand "on" line. It's our own shibboleth.)
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