Tuesday, January 18, 2011

valley girl speak.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_girl#Sociolect

Or 'sociolect' apparently.

A certain sociolect associated with Valley Girls, referred to as “Valspeak,” became common across the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, and much entered teenage slang throughout the country.

Qualifiers such as “like”, “whatever”, “way”, "as if!", “totally” and “duh” were interjected in the middle of phrases and sentences as emphasizers. Narrative sentences were often spoken as though they were questions using a high rising terminal.

Valspeak is often spoken with a heavy accent sometimes associated with Californians. Words are spoken with high variation in pitch combined with very open or nasal vowel sounds.

D: Heh, "whatever" was rated the most annoying response one can have.

* Like - Used as an interjection: "That was, like, the worst thing ever!" or to indicate speech: "And she was like 'Get out of my way!'"
* As if – lit. "yeah, right" or "as if" except it does not use a subject; expresses disbelief.
* Bitchin' - adj. slang for excellent; first-rate. Though a derivative of "bitch", bitchin' is sometimes not considered profane.
* Whatever! - short for "whatever you say"; sarcastic interjection often emphasizing the final syllable.
* Fer shur – lit. "For sure", often used in agreement.
* Totally – "I agree" or "completely."
* Oh my God – can be used many ways; expresses shock.
* Tre - A synonym for "very" (derived from French "très")
* So - Very; used frequently and said with strong emphasis.
* Seriously - Frequent interjection of approval.
* Gnarly - expression of seriousness. can be a word for very intense or very pleasing
* Are you serious?- expression of surprise.

D - frightening how pervasive this has become.
These halve the apparent IQ of the speaker...

Totally. Like. Fer Shur.

In linguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language (a dialect) associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ValleyGirl (image)

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