I thought I was being a stodgy Gen Xer in feeling profound contempt for these news pundits on CNN and MSNBC I just keep yelling at my TV: you sound like a moron! Theyre clearly not morons though many are well-educated and very smart but when they say right? and start a sentence with so they sound like idiots. The worst speech pattern for me is when the speaker put strong emphasis on many words in the same sentence, for example: But this pattern is now very diffuse, especially for people who do speeches, they think that putting a strong emphasis on each words makes their speech more powerful, while in reality it just dilutes the effect because now most words are pronunced with emphasis. A big offender is Marie Harf (former FOX News Dem commentator and former Obama State Department Spokeswoman). Just observant. The way peoplearenowpurposely talking slow as though everyone theyre speaking to is a moron? I may be alone in this one lol, but i hate it. I forgot about another sentence I hate, Was the Mike Lindell one, Thats why I curated MyPillow? Yes her voice was tough to take but once you realized what she went through.well fuck. every word. If I had my way all of the above media types would be banned outright at home, in school and in the workplace, as all of it makes me want to puke. Valspeak is, like, short for the way Valley Girls talk that was, like, you know, so big Frank Zappa sang about it in 1982. Based on a 2010 NPR Music survey of its listeners * Missing: Mohammad-Reza Shajarian * Ahmad Zahir * Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan * Asha Bhosle * Esma Redzepova * Sezen Aksu * Dennis Brown * Radmilla Cody * Khaled * Twinkie Clark * Amalia Rodrigues * Concha Buika * Chavela Vargas * Camaron de la Isla Can you comment on a growing trend of, what one person termed, manufactured precision diction? Also the northeastern dis, dat, dem and does for this, that, them and those. She has been a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild since 2005. It is so rehearsed and not natural. Other specialties include female narration voice overs for corporate narration, web videos, tutorials, explainer videos and technical medical narration. Look at any Hugh Grant movie, and youll see. I seem to see/hear it all the time nowadays, normally just after someone has clearly explained the facts around something, but the person reading/hearing it feels the need to demand the person giving out the information to Wait! so they can then ask them What?, as though what theyve just heard is complete nonsense, simply because they havent, (or so it comes across), been able to comprehend it the first time around. I dont mind hearing AAVE when its between friends but professional usage irks. I agree with your comments whole-heartedly, and also wish that more attention be paid in the school environment to identifying and correcting inappropriate speech and speech patterns. Some words are not meant to have all the letters pronounced. I am a white dude on the radio, and no one has EVER tweeted at me critiquing my voice. Its just a dialect difference. as f*ck immediately comes to mind, stupid-sounding phrases like SO MUCH YES! Its not just insincere, its rude, as if theyre annoyed at having to say it. Its kind of like way better than going to the library. It is irritating. It may have developed independently in both places. Ive noticed an increase in the pronunciation of to as tyoo but it seems more frequent when the speakerthey seem to be mostly femaleelongates the word, perhaps suggesting that its said when the speaker is having a moment of reflection or being pensive; that it is becoming universal on television news and commentary is undeniableand is becoming an annoyance, These are probably the same girls that used to (or possibly still do ) say things like stop itah!! Part One: Into the Digital Era, Voice Over Trends 2022: Hottest Marketing Trends You Dont Want to Miss, Emotional Branding: The Power of Emotional Video Narratives, The Brand Anthem: What It Is, Why You Need One, An embarrassment in front of mom, dad or the general public, Unfit for any position that pays more than minimum wage. The biggest one that I hear it in is when celebrities say singer. I'm happy to have a variety of voices on NPR, but they shouldn't include those that are annoyingly shrill or are using incorrect grammar. Brits will say Sorrey, and Americans will say sorry. Try listing the garnishes you can add to a hamburger ( tomato, lettuce, onion, etc ) without going up in pitch with each word. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts on this subject. (Said in a condescending nerd voice: So. If the person is on TV, I have to change the channel. Ask people why they do it (has to be within moments of the list having been sung) and theyll tell you its just a list. Its definitely whiny, and its annoying as hell to my ears. They rise the inflection of the words at the end of every sentence. They also cannot read digital clocks. In another, speakers with vocal fry received more votes in a hypothetical election. Button, mountains Stoooop with the glottal stop! Its definitely annoying! It is not just annoying, it sounds absolutely ridiculous. A video on Today explains how it makes the women feel part of a macroculture.. The pay is $18 an hour, and Id start on next Monday, soyeah. (My 18-yo granddaughter, recently). I first noticed this in the TV series Unforgotten where it is hugely noticeable, but seeing earlier performances in the TV series Spooks from a number of years before, I see (hear!) How did this start? Back in the day you would be fired for delivering news that way. They clearly make a conscious decision to not have Black announcers speaking in the dominant Black American Vernacular English. "It's so quintessential to his delivery." The broadcasters at a local TV newsroom think that sentences end with three periods. I wonder ifnah, prolly not. Thanks to ALL recent commenters for reading and sharing your thoughts on this topic. What about the most recent one where you say structure with a glottal g/sh that sounds like struh-sherr? I realize its really too early to be voting for Most Annoying for 2021, but this ones definitely been frosting my butt. and I was totally unprepared for it? May I direct my fellow annoyed speech watchers to a major culprit leading to these speech patterns? This has brought me to believe that uptalk is contrived and not a natural progression of linguistics. I have suffered through dozens of interviews with millennials, both male and female, who use vocal fry, up talk and verbal place holders as if their lives depended on it. She is one of the favorite voices in the NPR. e.g. Someone must start these silly fads. The one thats driving me crazy is this extra schwa added to the ends of words. One thing journalists I spoke to said: They're real people and they'd like to sound real too. Its a good question.. uuuh-eem.. if we look at the sortve.. cultural implications.. implications.. we we find that people.. generally are all victims of being annoying.. I work for a large tech company in the SF Bay Area and I can attest that uptalk, unfortunately, is more pervasive than ever. My god, every single female and some of the males end every sentence like its a question. To say that all these fad-driven speech patterns are kinda, sorta, well I dont know, annoyingmay seem a bit harsh. Worchestershire sauce anyone? I am a white dude on the radio, and no one has EVER tweeted at me critiquing my voice. Real News Host: In the last five minutes of the segment, for the viewers And what about people now pronouncing the t in often? Ive heard this a lot in the mid-Atlantic states, but lately its infested patterns of speech throughout the United Stateshow about Canada? Thanks for acknowledging this- I dont feel so insane anymore. Not sure. And the speech pattern that led me to your page is the one Ive observed in the voice overs on virtually all home improvement shows. One reason we don't comment on reporters' voices is because voice is personal. I began to notice it more and more on TV and in real life and decided that whoever started this trend should be banished to Antarctica for the remainder of his/her life. I call it excessive schwa-ing. This occurs a lot when listing items. He would say, no I dont know in reply to our you know. I just love what you wrote. Hello; Ek-specially, think-yewwwuh and using individual instead of person are three of my current annoyance triggers. Tripp, I agree completely. How can there or here not be ON the ground, if it is, ON the ground. This is supposed to be pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable: STUdent. The staccato, infantile voices of the most cultured, educated, experienced, expert young women must have some scientific basis. I found this sight because I searched to see if I was the only one annoyed by sentences starting with So , which I find very annoying. Politicians and reporters insist on saying Look before spewing a profound statement. Simstrom ascribes those criticisms to gender: "I have long had a theory that part of what people take issue with about our show is women speaking authoritatively about science.". is You get the idea. When I go into the 4th, 5th grade classes, I write my name on the board in cursive. Greene has certainly proved his mettle. Duffin, of Planet Money, said that when she's recording she tries to sound like "a more listenable, polished version" of herself. Ive noticed the upward shift in tone can be as much as an octave. She pointed out that Ira Glass, the host of This American Life who has an iconic radio voice, uses a lot of vocal fry. "If you sound like America, then it's America that's talking. They also do this in Germany, quite memorably. I like to call this Laundry Listing because it is like they are giving you this boring laundry list of things. Are you listening to me? It sounds like a popular catch phrase sports people use to show they are a sport person who know what they are talking about. Children these days arent even taught it anymore, and should they actually receive a hand-written note, they act as if they are translating some strange foreign sandscript language, to even try and read it. Ive pointed out the mistake to my grandchildren who acknowledge the correction but later continue to say me and him. Even more annoying is the public speakers misuing the pronouns. Look at what?? So. I m hearing the phrases theres no doubt about it and theres no question about it and the variations: no doubt about it, no doubt, no question about it, and no question. Uptalk or up speak are newer terms for ARI or Australian Rising Inflection which I am told is where it began. I first noticed this 10 years ago watching Dora the Explorer with my Daughter. Most examples have been covered here. Her words hold me hostage. We drink when we hear Emily Bazelon and her cronies say ta on the Political Gabfest. I consider language a beautiful sign of class, education and the desire to make everybody involved in a conversation comfortable. And, when a person says, you are smarter than I, the am is implied as in I am. This dessert was super easy to make! a. period. I also loathe when people pronounce nuclear as nucular. ***Follow @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the . is my dog No! I think females tend to do this more often and more dramatically. I dont claim to speak perfect English but these are things every child learns in grade school. Personally, I have a laundry list of poor speech and grammar pet peeves. I am also hearing a and an used incorrectly. This had to have started with someonemaybe a Kardashian? So, it is not just me that notices this. Vocal fry. . Others, over exaggerated, more perfect, funner and many more. I hear these daily with the younger crowd at work, and it has become an epidemic, catching on with even older folks. My aversion to imbecile-generated sounds has made me reconsider certain career paths. NOW, I substitute. Bull***t. Its just people being influenced by media influencers (Kardashians) and then copying each other to fit in. Most of us know the way we speak may change depending what social situation were in. Noticably used televangelist pastors and political speeches. I have also noticed when people use a hard g instead of a soft or silent g in many words. I guess my question is: is this a recognised speech defect? Sam Sanders, host of It's Been a Minute, said that learning to write in his own voice was difficult. For example someone says I went to the store, then the gas station, and then got something to eat. I relate to it now as it is the absolutely worst thing ever and the commercial uses the cymbals to change it into some great thing, which it is not. I am seriously thinking of finding a new provider for that very reason. I am particularly by the long, drawn out letter r at the end of a word: culturrrrr. It really annoys me when people are speaking in clear English and then when its time foe them to refer to a foreign culture such as Latinos they cant just say Latinos like we do in English but they have to HEAVILY saturate their pronunciation so they can prove that they are almost (or actually) bilingual. Unfortunately most people dont even notice they have been infected, or they simply dont care, leaving people like me to go crazy. attack becomes attawwk; radio becomes rawwdio. I have been trying to figure out why so so many people in TV commercials speak with a lisp. (Thuh ocean, thuh actor). I don't think the latter is our goal.". Housewives of wherever, The Hills, Keeping up with, The Apprentice. It appears "almost exclusively among women, and young women. Allowing reporters to sound like themselves helps NPR reflect the variety of identities in its audience, and meet its long-term goal to "sound like America," with all of its diversity. Unfortunately these offensive speech trends have been happening for many decades. He joins us. Its a strange phenomenon in my mind, but of course trends come and go. Its refreshing to hear someone else with similar tendencies, calling out the younger generation on so many of these types of habits, which, in effect, butcher the language and the beauty of its intended delivery. Agree! 10 years later, it has infected our speech everywhere in North America. To me, thats like criticising someone who stutters, besides being a tool to stonewall me. It feels very much like assumed humility and manipulation. I mean, like, Im literally, like, here. Weird or unique ways of speaking are one way to get noticed. I recall an item on the NPR program All Things Considered in the EARLY 90s about the rising inflection? Ive only been annoyed once by the over use of the word like. I completely agree with the annoying no problem response from a server after saying Thank you. I wonder if there is a name for this yet? The overuse of superlative adjectives. But many English speakers dont really consider you as plural, because its indistinguishable from the singular, and so they perceive a gap in our pronoun system, which has been filled with a number of informal second-person plural pronouns: yall, you guys, yous guys, you-all, you lot (UK), etc. Its like an italian accent, but not that exactly cuz i can resist the italian english accent, but not this habit my friends do cuz i know theyre not italian. I watched a high school teacher being interviewed on television and every other word was one of the phrases that make me tune out as I am bound to do when I am forced to watch a powerpoint presentation. My vote for most annoying speech affectation goes to the word to. I came to this thread as I am driven mad by Nicola Walker, the terrific British actress (who I like very much) has this annoying habit of pausing momentarily in the middle of delivering her line in a script. It seems to be the new normal. November 28, 2016 by Debbie Grattan 307 Comments. The most annoying speech patterns are those of condescending people educated beyond thier intellect. A major part of the Biden plan is to sort of prioritize pandemic assistance. A speech pattern where every word is delivered with careful measure and staccato pauses, as if every thought being expressed is incredibly complex? Hansen coaches voice . The sad thing about podcasters is that they have not taken any diction or public speaking classes. Im sorry to say that the age old requirement to communicate accurately both verbally and in writing, and to effectively be your true self while communicating, is rapidly being lost to us all, in favour of these Social Media / Reality TV educated fools who cant be bothered to spell a word properly or fully, or string a coherent sentence together without an emoji! OMG! Theres another pronunciation of words that drive me to distractionor in this case I should say diSHtraction. Im wondering if there is a name for a pattern Im noticing when people start listing bullet point details. These are commentators, announcers, and reporters!! Its rampant. Any and all bridge words used frequently in conversation is exceedingly annoying. used instead of OK Dont run into nobody! (a parent to a child) Firstly, I would like to say that I quite enjoyed reading your article. I can deal with that but having to stand there and not be able to express a thought is just too much. Duffin said voice critiques don't bother her personally but that she worries they limit who feels welcome on the air. Isnt it enough that we can send a message in an instant without having to wait for a cursive written letter to arrive in weeks, but make it even faster with short cut spelling to arrive in a matter of seconds? At work, I am surrounded by intelligent and well-educated women in their 20s to 40s who speak this way. 1 the misuse of I Objective reality, for some folks, must be something that just happens to others. As a young woman who sometimes subconsciously dips into this lower vocal register, I don't even notice when radio reporters speak with vocal fry. We lost thou as its use changed to refer to social subordinates long story short, we ended up with you for both the second-person singular and second-person plural pronouns. Thanks for a place to vent. THAT new vaccine, THAT plane crash, THAT police shooting its really getting annoying. What is it called when people stress the end of the last few words of a sentence as if they are using. I agree though, like the tattoo girl on the Twix commercial that spells NO REGERTS and then says Sawree in that whiny sarcastic voice. !, WAIT-aahh. I cant understand why newscasters emphasize random words (often times its a verb) Jackie Fortir is a healthcare reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma and part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News partnership. I also wonder with all the texting short cuts, have we created a new language? What comes to mind when you imagine an "NPR voice"? Especially, the pervasive use of poor speech in the business world, and academia. I cannot remember any time that the person uttering that delusional phrase wasnt in political arts.. Hansen is a classically trained singer, and has sung with choirs and madrigal groups, in musical theatre, and in jazz and rock bands. Its just annoying affectation and you KNOW they know better but they think it is adding something. You hear it I. interviews with British movies stars. Ill add the slow sing-songy way people have started to talk. The biggest for me, though, is the epidemic vocal fry combined with a high-pitched voice, or sexy baby speak, among the majority of women, and many men now (Ira Glass, Im looking at you). They want profit without first investing in professionalism, imo. Any insight into where the hard G at the end of -ing is coming from? Does that mean that Aussies and New Zealanders are not sure of themselves? The kids immediately say, I cant read cursive. The sht thing I noticed way before Michelle Obama, which is sad because she is otherwise very well spoken. culture that (IMO) is ruining our educational system. Sorry for the typo of the when it should have been they. While listeners sometimes write to us specifically about a particular voice they don't like, a survey of the emails we receive reveals a pattern. Also, I heard earlier on a My Pillow commercial a similar error which I failed to write down. Our language is being bastardised for their own purpose, throat fry, non-pronunciation, just being annoying. I am a bit more forgiving if English isnt your first language but otherwise its incredibly annoying. I felt as though I learned something today. Sh to begin start and such, is New York City and environs, similar to yuge. The voice goes up and slows down, theeeeeeeen, then they list detail 1, and detail two (pause) and detail three. People complained that young, female reporters rasped their voices in an unprofessional way. Maybe thats it. They sound exhausted or out of breath. After thank you = no tip from me. I had never noticed the yeah yeah yeah but within ten minutes I heard it on tv. 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