Quote:
Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel
I think it is a little off to make generalizations about California speech when you grew up in Kentucky and moved to the Bay Area as an adult. As someone who was born and raised in San Francisco proper, I find it insulting to attribute Valley Girl speech (which is from a different region of California) to all of California. If you had used "hella" as an example I wouldn't have mentioned it. No one I know over uses the words: like, for sure, totally gag me with a spoon, or has spoken with a Valley Girl accent. I am quite thankful I speak accentlessly.
|
As I noted before, my initial reply was sarcastic and made in jest. Too bad that was not conveyed as well as I had hoped.
And while I may not have been born or reared here, and have only lived in the Bay Area for over twenty years, I do have a keen ear to California speech patterns. And I can report that I do hear variations of valspeak in and around the San Francisco Bay Area all the time.
For what it is worth, I found this from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
So you know it's got to be true.
(That is sarcasm just in case you didn't get it.
) The bolding and underlining are mine.
Quote:
|
Valspeak is a common name for an American sociolect, originally of Southern Californians, in particular valley girls. This stereotype originated in the 1970s, but was at its peak in the 1980s and lost popularity in the late 1990s and 2000s. Though for a brief period a national fad, many phrases and elements of Valspeak, along with surfer slang and skateboarding slang, are stable elements of the California English dialect lexicon, and in some cases wider American English (such as the widespread use of "like" as conversational filler). Elements of valspeak can now be found virtually everywhere English is spoken, particularly among young native English speakers.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel
NorCal is a younger generation thing, I see decals on vehicles in Idaho and Washington that belong to students from Northern California. I'm a bit older so I don't say it, but it is now the common vernacular, as Valley Girl speech was 25+ years ago.
|
I will have to trust your personal experience on what is happening in Idaho and Washington. However, I have not noticed any "NorCal" decals on vehicles nor do I hear it as part of the vernacular here in the San Francisco Bay Area. From personal experience, the Bay Area residents *I* know (starting as young as preschool and beyond) refer to the area as Bay Area. Not "NorCal". But I do not doubt that there are plenty of "NorCal folk" who say it. Just like I am sure that there are NorCals (persons of NorCal?) that perhaps over use "like" now and again.
Y'all have a nice day.
Threaded Mode
