Vocal Fry Up Talk

I love language, learning new words and communicating effectively, in whatever form it takes.

In University, I even, though somewhat grudgingly, took a linguistics class and could have easily become jaded had I taken any more classes. I quickly found out the hard way, that I didn't have the mind or thinking pattern of a linguist. In spite of this fact, I did learn some important factual information about language. Language is a living, cultural, ever changing entity.

My mother was a bit of a grammar and language cop. She would annoyingly correct me if I wasn't using proper English. I inherited her love of language and the certain bugaboos that often go along with this. Like getting my drawers in a knot when I'd hear the non existent word, unthawed. It's a kind of somewhat anal retentive reaction you have when people make certain mispronunciations or have a particular way of speaking or even singing that can get really under your skin. Too many 'likes' and 'you knows' are enough to drive a person bat shit.

As it is said opinions are like assholes, we all have one. That's our right and perfectly acceptable. Live and let live I say. I recently expressed my opinion when I made a comment on a site, that presented a video on the topic of what to do when people don't take you seriously. There were a number of what I considered helpful suggestions. My comment referred to using an particular tone inflection that goes up at the end of a sentence when making a statement that sounds more like a question, and prefacing ideas with the word, just, as in, 'I just thought it would be a good idea too'...fill in the blank. The combination of these two ways of speaking in my opinion, does not instill confidence in the ideas being presented and was really annoying to listen to.

Well maybe it's just me, and perhaps this is my own personal language bugaboo but I still find it very annoying to listen to by times.

 As I mentioned I love language and communication. If a person has a command of whatever language they are speaking, and if you can communicate well, then all the better in my opinion. I believe we'll express ourselves more effectively and people want to listen.

It's a good thing to keep your sense of humour, and I think it's all relative, we have to go with the flow, not take things so seriously regarding language and how it is used, because language is a living, ever changing thing, and it is a reflection of our culture, good or bad.

I learned two new words today, vocal fry and up talk. Here is a very interesting commentary I listened to on CBC The Current today that explores contrasting views about present day language and communication.