Where do today's young women get those dreadful voices from?

[smalll]

I hear it here a lot in NYC, but I know it's a national thing. Their voices borrow something from the old 80s-style valley-girl speak. And of course their declarative sentences end in a question-style tone raise -- "uptalk" I gather it's called.

But what really gets me is that though in some ways their voices are Valley Girl 2.0, it's valley girl not so much high-pitched or low-pitched, but rather strangulated in the throat. They all sound like disgruntled ducks. Remember Batman? They all sound like the daughters of the Penguin -- QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK!

So where do they get this voice from? Its high obnoxion certainly cuts through background noise like a chainsaw, so it may have, in part, been an evolutionary development out of the high-decibel ambiance in the bars and restaurants of today's upscale urban neighborhoods. I also sympathize with today's young women, and imagine perhaps that the disgruntled-duck voice may be their best attempt at a vocal "Third Way" -- a 21st-century nasality that is not any kind of frou-frou old-style "feminine" thing, but is also, in its Paul-Lyndesque qualities, not exactly typical of the standard male voice.


So where do they get that voice? :shrug:

[XemaSab]

1. Like, I'm from California?

And I, like, resemble your remark? :shrug:

[AlCzervik]

2. like oh my god Becky i heard one them tonight, she was walking to "my dad's awesome truck"

"i have it like all weekend, right, i know, how cool is that?"

[newmajority]

3. Maybe you should ask the #1 Valley Girl of the Bush Crime Family?

Dana "Too Much Cappucino" Perino

[texanwitch]

4. I have heard speech like this in Texas.

The only thing is that it is with a Texan accent and they use the word y'all.

Really.

[amitten]

5. I don't think I've heard this. Can you give an example of maybe

a celebrity/public figure who does it?

I can't imagine the sound...

[texasleo]

6. Britney