Girls so, like, rule English
By John Harlow and Dan Box
09-01-2006
From: The Australian
THE teenage girl is the most powerful influence on the evolution of the English language around the world.
According to new research, the typical 16-year-old girl - armed with a mobile phone and a wide circle of friends - has ensured the success of new phrases such as "muffin top" (a bulge of flesh over low-cut jeans) and "whale tail" (the sight of a g-string above the waistband of a skirt or trousers).
Sali Tagliamonte, Associate Professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto, believes the strongest recent shift has been the spread of Californian "Valley Girl" style, promoted around the globe by television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The OC.
This style of speech is characterised by inserting drawled words such as "like" and "so" to add emphasis to a sentence, which rises in pitch at the end.
"Valley Girl has gone beyond a fad and is now rooted in different forms of English around the world," Associate Professor Tagliamonte said.
"Girls are the single most powerful force in the English language today." The research was among work discussed at the annual meeting of the American Dialect Society in New Mexico over the weekend.
ADS New Words Committee chair Wayne Glowka said girls used new or fashionable words as status symbols, forcing language's constant evolution.
Barry Spurr, senior lecturer in English at the University of Sydney, said social pressures meant Australian men in particular were more reluctant to display their language abilities.
"They are afraid to be seen expressing thought because they are sexually insecure. They want to be seen to be real men and the standard for real men wouldn't be seen to express a thought," Dr Spurr said.
"The big problem in Australia is getting young men to talk at all. The girls are much more orally adventurous."
The Sunday Times, London, in The Australian
Hmmmn as much as I loved Buffy I don't think it would STILL be a contributing factor to teen girl speak
I have been noticing adult (as in greying) men using this usage too ... it really is here to stay ... like, for awhile anyway.
actually used those in everyday language.. not as dramatic as the way they used it in the movie (hand gestures and all), but just casually, it really seeped into our (or at least my) culture as a young girl in middle/high school. And I remember when I was in middle school once, I was talking in front of the class and I couldn't stop saying "Like" and I knew I was saying it too much and I was staring at everyone's face and I knew what they were thinking lol.. but I just couldn't control myself.. it was one of the weirder linguistic moments in my life.
