Jan 21, 2010
If you think uptalking is modern, feminine, teenage, or insecure, you’re wrong, k?
Mocking something you know almost nothing about is bigoted.
So read a little before you mock uptalking or pretend to understand it.
(video link via JT)
Subscribe to 22 Words
Recent Comments
- Will on How to become a wine expert and other advice for inexperienced wine lovers
- Stephen May on It’s not a slide, it’s a proto-steampunk ghetto park bench for one.
- Stephen May on Who or whom? A clear, simple answer from a professional grammarian
- Stephen May on Elitists in Minnesota town Lino Lakes approve English-only resolution
- Will Adair on How to become a wine expert and other advice for inexperienced wine lovers
Sponsors
Categories
- Arts in General (24)
- Bible (66)
- Blogging (153)
- Brevity (25)
- Constructive Criticism (268)
- Faith (210)
- Food & Drink (54)
- Language (214)
- Literature (104)
- Love (86)
- Miscellanea (286)
- Movies (14)
- Music (155)
- parenting (153)
- Personal (182)
- Questions (255)
- Quotes (41)
- Recommendations (129)
- Sports (8)
- Uncategorized (8)
- Visual Art (27)
- Writing (56)
Archives
- July 2010 (107)
- June 2010 (79)
- May 2010 (89)
- April 2010 (62)
- March 2010 (21)
- February 2010 (25)
- January 2010 (32)
- December 2009 (47)
- November 2009 (63)
- October 2009 (45)
- September 2009 (40)
- August 2009 (40)
- July 2009 (40)
- June 2009 (37)
- May 2009 (47)
- April 2009 (51)
- March 2009 (40)
- February 2009 (31)
- January 2009 (44)
- December 2008 (47)
- November 2008 (54)
- October 2008 (50)
- September 2008 (41)
- August 2008 (45)
- July 2008 (51)
- June 2008 (51)
- May 2008 (66)
- April 2008 (74)
- March 2008 (71)
- February 2008 (19)
Reader Recommendations
Some of the books and music that you, the readers, have recommended here over time:
Twitter Recommendations
Theme based on Derek Punsalan's Grid Focus.
I’m not sure he was saying that uptalking is always wrong, but that sometimes it is horribly abused, and that that abuse is a sign of an underlying cultural problem.
Perhaps that’s what he’s saying, but even so, that’s an extraordinary-to-the-point-of-absurd claim, which the evidence (as mentioned in the article I linked to) seems to point against.
But at least he said it with conviction. Now you can more easily criticize him.
Personally, among my friends, I’ve noticed what he’s saying to be true.
Best sentence ever in an academic response, ever:
Honestly, I wasn’t very convinced by the article, though I felt more educated by it. Unless I read it wrong, it seemed that the defense of uptalking rests on other cultures using it without the same interrogative meaning.
Seems to me it’s not the sound itself, but our context and culture in which that sound is generally associated with interrogation. It’s not that I dislike the sound of uptalking, but the connotation it has as a question.
You know?
nicely done.
I’m fairly certain that I’m an uptalker, though I’ve never really thought about it. It doesn’t bother me much when I hear it in others, but other phenomena that accompany it do. I am annoyed by the overuse of “like,” for example.
read both links. loved the video. i’m a 22 year old woman and i uptalk… “this is going to be such a fun party, y’know?!”
i didn’t feel like i was being mocked because of the way my friends and i speak.
i think my generation is passive aggressive, and i’m including myself when i say “my generation” (ex: we rely so heavily on text messages to communicate instead of calling each other on the phone.) it’s not the raising of the sentences that’s bad, i do that all the time, especially when i’m super excited.
i was struck by the thought of us not owning our own ideas, thoughts, and convictions. i LOVED the end: “it is not enough these days to simply question authority, you gotta speak with it, too.”
i’m like, totally sending this to all my friends!
Having educated myself by reading the article with the funny diagrams, am I now free to mock this phenomenon incessantly? Or are there other things I must read first as well? If so, I’m happy to oblige. Though I was unaware of prerequisites to the use of satire and mockery.
:)
Actually, as a teacher, I find that I use uptalk quite a bit in the classroom as a way of connecting with the students and making sure that they’re tracking with me. Uptalk generally demands some kind of response from the hearer, and the absence of a response may lead me to re-explain something in a new way.
However, it seems there are two phenomena being blasted in the video. The first is uptalk at the end of sentences, which seems perfectly legitimate in certain circumstances (but also can be a sign of insecurity on the part of the speaker).
The second, and in my view, more annoying, is the use of “like” and “totally” every other word as a filler. Similar to the classic “um,” I think effort should be made to at least be capable of speaking sans fillers. Filler words in informal conversation never hurt anybody; but if you’re incapable of not using filler, I think that’s a problem. And should be mocked. :)
I remember thinking through this specifically Joey when you taught our class at the north campus all those years ago. One thing that annoys me about certain teachers is their inability to not say “um” or “ahh” or whatever there filler is. You were able to teach wonderfully without such words, and I respected you for it.
I’m a total uptalker. Even my writing is uptalked. I so don’t care whether people make fun of me. In fact, I think it’s funny when they act all elitist about their supposedly “superior” language skillz. That says more about them than about my apparent “weak, insecure, feminine uptalk.” My language has nothing to do with my intelligence or ability to communicate.
Know what I mean?
Um, language has EVERYTHING to do with your ability to communicate.
I think what she means is that one can communicate perfectly adequately in any variation of a language, which is true.
“Perfectly adequately in any variation”???
Pidgin is a variation of English but I’d be hard pressed to feel I was getting my pidgin message across ‘perfectly adequately’ to an audience that spoke standardized English.
I uptalk too, but know that it can hinder communication and while one might be the most intelligent person in a room, if one isn’t smart enough to realize that using frequent uptalk can hinder a message by taking away from the content, then one might be missing the point.
That’s like saying, “What matters is my SOUL, not my BODY.” Sorry, but man looks at the outward appearance; only God can see your heart.
Your audience should have a TREMENDOUS influence on HOW you communicate, and the quality of your communication is utterly dependent on your ability to communicate in their vernacular.
Okay, uptalking itself isn’t terrible, but overuse of “like” as a verbal tic drives me NUTS. Which is admittedly hypocritical on my part…
Married to a speech-language pathologist are we? Sorry I had never heard the phrase uptalking until today.
Which is why I still Twitter and follow blogs, even though they too are constantly maligned.
oh my gosh! i’m not reading that entire article. dang, abraham. if i have to read articles that long as a prerequisite to mocking something, then i’ll never have the chance to mock anything. forget that.
and, how do we know that whats-his-name knows almost nothing about uptalking?? is that a hard fact in the article? he seems to have a handle on it.
as an uptalker, i don’t mind this jab. it’s a reminder that sometimes you can hurt your message w/ your phrasing…right?
btw, i’m not even sure i totally understand what uptalking is. but i am NOT reading that whole thing. no. way.
I’m with you Jenna. I had never heard or read the term uptalking before Abraham’s post. And I don’t think it’s ever defined in the article. It’s strange to me that the author assumes everyone knows what this phenomenon is.
ouch. bigoted is a strong word. even the author of your article gave more grace than that.
I skimmed the article.
LOVED the video.
Like other commenters, I’m not entirely sure I know what “uptalking” is, but I agree with Mali that this generation is very inarticulate. We rarely communicate directly and with authority and the overuse of “like”, “ya know” and other such phrases can definitely be distracting.
Doesn’t every generation have their differences in culture? It seems like every generation thinks the one behind them are decadent. There were those “roaring 20′s” and those hippie 60′s and those grunge 90′s… yet all those generations had their share of intelligent, thoughtful, articulate people — just like we do now.
Sure there are kids today who wouldn’t think or articulate themselves out of a paper bag, just as there have been with every generation. And there are also intelligent, articulate kids, just as before… and lots inbetween.
“Inarticulate” is relative. We communicate fine with one another with our lols and wtfs and OMG. ;)
As a chronic mumbler I belumph mugmmphar mmmmbl bleh.
He he he…
This whole experience has been a barrel of fun. Where do you come across this stuff?!?!
Reminds me of something I dug up my name to see it, but be warned, there is on the site of an acquaintance of yours. (Fire and Knowledge)
(Click on my name to see what I’m referring to, but be warned, it’s long and mildly vulgar, if I remember correctly.)
I love this blog!
I didn’t know there was a term for the kind of speaking, I just figured it was Canadian.
I saw this video for the first time about a year ago, and loved it. I showed it to all my kids, and especially loved showing it to my college-age daughter- who frowned, rolled her eyes, and shook her head at me. Perfect!
It is interesting that Mali contradicts his own poem by being an effective (masculine/powerful/whatever) communicator while using uptalking/final rises.
Especially the first 40 seconds or so. Know what I mean?
Great point here. If he was as strict as he seems to be pointing people towards, would he still be anywhere near as interesting?
he’s being satirical, so of course he uses that medium/tone to say the opposite of its normal use. also, even with his mockery, much if not most of his recitation is not in that tone, only frame by it or injected with it.
But the point is that he DOES have conviction and strength in his speech, and uptalking doesn’t diminish it.
Final rises have been around forever; it’s not a “Clueless” trend.
The folks who love Mali’s video have made the mistake of thinking that uptalking is cool and hip, when it is actually nothing more than a way to communicate.
not sure what to say??
I don’t know if it’s modern, feminine, teenage, insecure, or what. I just find it annoying when people talk like that all the time.
the moral of the story is that everybody “talks weird,” it’s just a matter of how good the PR happens to be for your way of talking. some dialects/speech communities/variations get a bad rap, while others get a free pass. now there’s your media bias.
Is this a generational thing? Because I thought this was dead spot on. I’m not sure I get Abraham’s point. Sorry
i’m with mali on this. ap, i’m not sure why you keep putting stuff up like this, but i must disagree. how you say something matters, sometimes even more than the content of what you’ve said.
that article does nothing to change the fact that you’ve got to take into consideration who you’re talking to, the cultural context you’re in, and what both the words and the tones you use mean in that context to your audience. otherwise, you won’t do well in communication.
and to give you a bit of ethos, i’m a 22-year-old recent college grad, so i’m from the generation where this is happening, though sometimes i’m ashamed of us.
Abraham,
Maybe I’m missing something, but is this a response to your mom and dad’s tweet?
I first saw the video a few days ago & I guess I didn’t read into it that deeply. I know alot of people who talk like that, including myself. And oftentimes I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m afraid of offending somebody. And I know I’m not very articulate in my speech. So…it made me laugh (Although it does bug the bejeebers out of me when people stop me mid-sentence and correct me for saying “like”. Which has happened. :)).
Alanis Morrisette, in her song *21 Things I Want In a Lover*, said she wanted someone who had “Many formed opinions.”
Probably because, in her experience, the guys she knew did NOT speak with conviction or have strong opinions about many things.
I’d put her desire and Mali’s criticism in the same boat.
You’re spot-on Abraham. This is an example of one generation getting peeved at language change and trying to turn it into a moral issue. Language is always changing, and people are always wailing about it and mocking it–because they are impotent against it.
I don’t agree with the analysis. I am guilty of uptalking a lot when talking with people and I think it is caused by wanting to present myself as (artificially) humble. Also, I think it is caused by society’s fear of absolute truth, so we try and soften our beliefs by forming them as a questions.
1. Seems to me “bigotry” is quite the harsh word. (*cough* Especially since your dad just tweeted positively about the video *cough*)
2. It also seems to me that relativism-disguised-as-epistemological-humility is completely validly mockable, which in my opinion was the main point of the poem (rather than mocking “uptalking” per se).
Mocking this is not “bigoted” because anyone who’s been around college and high school kids (and even those in their mid-20s) knows a lot about this realizes he’s not mocking the valid use of “up-talking.” He’s mocking the laziness of people who use filler words and the lack of backbone on the part of those who refuse to say anything as though it actually means anything.
The article provides some great analysis of the valid form, but it doesn’t apply to 99% of people who talk like this.
I have to agree with John’s second point (#28). There’s a difference between a “Viking”/Canadian/uptalker with something to say and is unafraid to say it and a person, uptalker or not, who fit the description of the substance of Mali’s video.
Are we running out of actual prejudices out there so we have to invent new ones?
One of the linked articles talks about criticism of uptalk as an instance of ‘confirmation bias’ and ‘naming and shaming’ (technical terms).
Becoming aware of bias doesn’t get rid of bias. It just gets rid of one conscious bias with the help of another unconscious one.
Becoming aware of one’s ‘naming and shaming’ doesn’t keep you ‘naming and shaming’. It just keeps you from naming and shaming the same people.
Avoiding blameworthy mockery seems more a function of being reasonable in being biased and in naming and shaming than in not having requisite scientific knowledge.
Rather than mocking uptalking, is this not mocking the relativistic nature of postmodern language which attempts to veil humility behind a curtain of uncertainty in anything?
Not all uptalking is to speak without conviction or intelligence, but uptalking’s rising intonations are prevalent in the inarticulate sloppy speech of intellectual laziness.
Perhaps Craig Ferguson has a better finger on why this postmodern way of communicating has become a cultural norm because of our society’s deification of youth: http://bit.ly/16WFfP
I can’t decide if you meant “veil humility behind a curtain of uncertainty in anything” or “veil uncertainty in anything behind a curtain of humility”? We need another academic article here….
Thanks for the info. Now I can mock with knowledge and confidence.
wow, over 45 responses to this post… talk about “talking up” uptalking.
hehe…
i did not realize there was a word for this phenomenom. I am related to an uptalker and I find it difficult to have conversations with her for more than five minutes b/c to me she sounds completely insincere, despite her intentions. I dont know if it is the uptalking or that she uses words like “totally awesome, fabulous, sweet, rock on, super great” in strings that tend to dilute the meaning or emphasis. It comes across that she didnt listen to anything I said, and just has this strange, canned response of superlatives and exclamation points.
If we’re going to be understanding and accepting of uptalking, then let’s be consistent and endorse ebonics as well.
Uptalking seems to be almost exclusively a white thing.
Which may explain why some would so willingly see uptalking as acceptable but reject ebonics in a heartbeat.
My gut reaction anyway.
I endorse ebonics with all my heart. Not that speakers of it would care about my endorsement.
It’s a really interesting language.
I’ve never heard of uptalk before. Never noticed it either. But now, thanks to this post I’ll probably develop some sort of aversion to it. ::sigh::
Hahaha! That video was great! Loved it. Totally gnarly.