
Uptalk is becoming more frequent among men - Zhenya
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25232387
======
mwfunk
We really need to come together as a species to combat this. This isn't a
gender thing or a generational thing- I remember uptalk from the '80s; much
like hatred, greed, and violence, it has probably been around in one form or
another ever since we were evolved enough to engage in such activities. If we
fail to stop this, we richly deserve whatever horrifying apocalypse follows as
a result, whether it's getting stomped to death by a newly-arisen and
understandably annoyed Cthulhu, or (more likely) Idiocracy comes true within
our lifetimes.

Seriously: THIS CANNOT COME TO PASS. It cannot be allowed to happen. It
doesn't matter what extremes we have to go to to stop it, even WWIII.
Honestly, the complete and total extinction of humanity in a nuclear holocaust
is preferable to someday waking up in a world where adults uptalk at any time
ever for any reason at all whatsoever.

There are times in one's life where everything comes down to one struggle; one
fight; one crusade. This is one of those times. Do not disappoint me,
humanity. Please, please, please, please do not disappoint me, as you have so
many times in the past. Do not let this happen. Thanks in advance?

~~~
radicaledward
I especially like that you ended your comment with a misplaced question mark?
Unfortunately it looks like you are being down voted quite a bit? This seems
like a genuine example of Poe's Law[1] in action?

1
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law)

~~~
gamegoblin
I don't think it qualifies as Poe; it's too clearly intentionally exaggerated
for humor.

~~~
sitkack
To offset Poe's law? I give that guy Kudos if I a KudoCopter.

------
anateus
Every time I see language coverage from the BBC I break out in cold sweat.
It's usually horrifyingly bad. This one wasn't terrible.

If you want some more background on uptalk and some of its spread from
linguists:

[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=568](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=568)

[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8879](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8879)

~~~
barry-cotter
_Every time I see_ TOPIC I am expert in coverage _from_ journalists _I break
out in cold sweat. It 's usually horrifyingly bad._

FTFY

~~~
jjh42
I recently learned this has a name. The Gell-Mann effect.

[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2011/08/the-murray-
ge...](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2011/08/the-murray-gell-mann-
amnesia-effect/)

------
area51org
The thing is, people (women _and_ men) were talking in a similar way in the
'80s — I was there. In CA. This has been a long time in coming, and I don't
believe it was every especially isolated to females. Also, the phenomenon of
"vocal fry" (that sort of gravelly sound made by younger people, usually near
the end of a sentence)—that's not new, either. I happen to like it, and I
remember listening pleasantly to girls who talked that way in the '90s, and
possibly before.

~~~
b_emery
*"vocal fry" Do you have an example? I was there too, but have no idea what you mean. Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High perhaps?

~~~
biot
Here's a good rant on vocal fry, exaggerated for effect:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsE5mysfZsY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsE5mysfZsY)

The sad thing is that I know someone who talks _exactly_ like this.

~~~
WWLink
sounds like the boss in office space

------
bluthru
When someone always up talks they come off as needlessly timid and desperate
for agreement. Or, coming off as faux-inquisitive, as if everything's an open-
ended question to ponder.

What also bugs me: Prepending every answer with "So…" a la Zuckerberg.

~~~
frou_dh
The "So" plague is not limited to answers. It shows up line zero column zero
in all things written. I imagine all 365 entries in a contemporary teenager's
diary begin "So today ..." / "So I ..." / "So thing happened ..."

------
abledon
"The team recorded and analysed the voices of 23 native Californians aged
between 18 and 22. The researchers were therefore not able to infer similar
language patters in older Californians."

Mmmm, gotta love that solid 23 person sample size surely representing the
general youth population :)

------
skywhopper
It's not clear from this article that the researchers claim any evidence of
uptalk in the past being more common among girls and women. The only claim
seems to be that this current research showed no difference based on gender.

Which isn't surprising. There are a lot of stereotypes about language usage
differences between men and women that are entirely without basis, often in
reality being the opposite of the CW.

~~~
hanley
They only studied 23 people. I don't think anything at all can be claimed from
such a small sample.

~~~
skywhopper
Well, I'm sure they discuss that risk in the actual paper. But it's worth
noting that they've done far more research into the topic than people who
repeat the myth that uptalk is "girl talk".

------
Selfcommit
The team recorded and analysed the voices of 23 native Californians aged
between 18 and 22.

\- How is this even news? They're saying they happened to find 23 people.. in
the entire state...

~~~
Zhenya
I started researching this when I noticed it was highly prevalent in my
company. Furthermore, new people would join (from other parts of the country)
and would pick up this speech pattern within days.

~~~
dredmorbius
Certain speech patterns are very highly addictive and tend to be adopted
quickly. I notice this most particularly with southern drawls (US) and
regional northeastern accents (New Jersey, Long Island, Southie, Bronx, etc.).
Others not so much (southwest / native American, northern plains (Wisconsin /
Minnesota).

------
erehweb
Is writing being similarly affected? Seems like it would be interesting to
know? Further research would be useful?

Edit: Of course, a joke. But note that an article title currently on front
page "How to tell when someone is lying?" adds a question mark not in the
source.

------
Zhenya
The wiki entry that really got me looking into this. I see this rampantly in
my company:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal)

------
dmourati
As in, "I'm Ron Burgandy?"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVjRG7PB_4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVjRG7PB_4)

------
Hominem
I work with a lot of male geeks 10+ years younger than me and they all do this
when stating an opinion. It is so prevalent I even started doing it. It got so
bad I was doing it when I was actually right about stuff "you may want to add
comments? And create a new branch? Don't just merge it into master? wait until
I someone reviews it?" I've tried to make a conscious effort to stop but it is
like a virus.

------
JohnDoe365
Seems like a natural thing in a world increasingly in favor of woman. Might
not be true for the CS department.

------
delinka
I keep seeing uptalk used to insult someone should "know better" than to ask
such revoltingly dumb questions: "How do I debug my app?" "Um...with a
debugger?"

Or I've seen uptalk used to supply guesses from other people who don't know
the answer but are willing to pontificate: "How does one get a test VM?"
"Download a VM product? Contact operations and requisition one?"

Most often the former though, and yes it is annoying.

------
sfeng
They only studied 23 people.

~~~
marincounty
Yea--end of study.

------
dorfsmay
I know a few people I like and whose opinions I respect who talk like this,
and if I don't make a conscious effort to ignore the uptalk, it drives me mad.

What is it? Why is it so irritating?

------
pessimizer
I do it on purpose sometimes, but just to make fun of Australians.

------
trhway
i thought it is just (male) hipster talk :) (i'm a Russian immigrant, live in
the Valley for more than a decade)

------
ktzar
Not only people is sounding more like idiots, people say more and more idiotic
things.

------
jinushaun
Big focus on California, but I feel like this is just West Coast accent in
general.

------
Dewie
> "Typically, women are trail-blazers in language change and take up
> innovative features first, then males start using them later.

OT, but why say "women", but then "males"? Or vice versa? I don't particularly
like "fe/male": since it's a generic term for the sex of any animal, it comes
off more as a biological taxonomy. "We have seen this behaviour in multiple
human specimen."

You kind of need those two words as adjectives. But not as nouns.

~~~
randallsquared
The word "women" is unambiguous, whereas "men" could mean "males", or could
mean "people", depending on the age and/or ideology of the writer.

~~~
Dewie
You're right. But not in this particular sentence.

