A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, from the Los Angeles commuter communities of the San Fernando Valley . In subsequent years, the term was broadly applied to any American woman who epitomized frivolity , ditziness , airheadedness , or who prioritizes superficial concerns such as personal appearance , physical attractiveness , and excessive materialism over intellectual or personal accomplishment.
40-411: Valleyspeak, or Valspeak, is a California English social dialect and accompanying vocal features, best associated with Valley girls, though elements of it have spread to other demographics, including men called "Val dudes". This sociolect became an international fad for a certain period in the 1980s and 1990s, with a peak period from around 1981 to 1985. Valleyspeak is popularly characterized by both
80-415: A General or Western American accent ; however, alternatively viewed, California accents, due to unconscious linguistic prestige , may themselves be serving as a baseline to define accents around the U.S. that are perceived as "General American". In fact, several California-like accent features are spreading across the nation, according to 21st century research. A distinctive chain shift of vowel sounds,
120-413: A "typical" General American English , abbreviated "GA". /ɪ/ is pulled towards [ɛ] ( bit and miss are sounding more like how other dialects realize bet and mess ), /ɛ/ is pulled towards [ æ ] ( wreck and kettle are sounding more like rack and cattle ), /æ/ is pulled towards [ ä ] , and /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ merge ( cot and stock are sounding more like caught and stalk ):
160-610: A greater determiner of this accent than the authenticity of the individual's Southern heritage. For example, this correlates with less educated rural men of northern California documented as raising /ɛ/ in a style similar to the Southern drawl . Overall, among those who orient toward a more town lifestyle, features of the California Vowel Shift are more prominent, but not to the same extent as in urban coastal communities such as San Jose . By contrast, among those who orient toward
200-535: A linguistic boundary between northern and southern California, particularly regarding the northern use of hella and southern (but now nationally widespread) use of dude , bro , and like . Varieties of English most popularly associated with California largely correlate with the major urban areas along the coast. Notable is the absence of a distinct /ɔ/ phoneme (the vowel sound of caught, stalk, clawed, etc.), which has completely merged with /ɑ/ (the vowel sound of cot, stock, clod, etc.), as in most of
240-597: A more country lifestyle, the Southern features are more prominent, but some aspects of the California Vowel Shift remain present as well. The Mission brogue is a disappearing accent spoken within San Francisco , mostly during the 20th century in the Mission District . It sounds distinctly like New York and possibly Boston accents , due to a large number of Irish Americans migrating from those two East Coast cities to
280-477: Is hella good". The word can be casually used multiple times in multiple ways within a single sentence. Pop culture references to "hella" are common, as in the song " Hella Good " by the band No Doubt , which hails from southern California, and "Hella" by the band Skull Stomp, who come from northern California. California, like other Southwestern states, has borrowed many words from Spanish , especially for place names , food, and other cultural items, reflecting
320-506: Is a California English social dialect and accompanying vocal features, best associated with Valley girls, though elements of it have spread to other demographics, including men called "Val dudes". This sociolect became an international fad for a certain period in the 1980s and 1990s, with a peak period from around 1981 to 1985. Valleyspeak is popularly characterized by both the steady use of uptalk and its vocabulary. This lends itself to explicit language ideologies about dialects in
360-758: Is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, from the Los Angeles commuter communities of the San Fernando Valley . In subsequent years, the term was broadly applied to any American woman who epitomized frivolity , ditziness , airheadedness , or who prioritizes superficial concerns such as personal appearance , physical attractiveness , and excessive materialism over intellectual or personal accomplishment. Valleyspeak, or Valspeak,
400-541: Is assumed that they have "inferior speech" patterns. For men, the high rise of intonation usually "plateaued" at certain points, especially in situations where they didn't want to be interrupted. The sound of Valleyspeak has these main habits: nasal sound; fast-paced run-on sentences; breathiness; uptalk, or the sound of a question; and vocal fry . California English California English (or Californian English ) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California . As California became one of
440-530: Is one hypothesis; however, certain features of this accent are intensifying and spreading geographically. Other documented California English includes a "country" accent associated with rural and inland white Californians, which is also (to a lesser extent) affected by the California Vowel Shift; an older accent once spoken by Irish Americans in San Francisco ; and distinctly Californian varieties of Chicano English mainly associated with Mexican Americans . Research has shown that Californians themselves perceive
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#1732859066121480-411: Is the front of the mouth closer to the teeth, the right side of the chart being the back of the mouth). As with other vowel shifts, several vowels may be seen moving in a chain shift around the mouth. As one vowel encroaches upon the space of another, the adjacent vowel in turn experiences a movement in order to maximize phonemic differentiation . For convenience, California English will be compared with
520-469: The GOOSE and GOAT vowels. Certain varieties of Chicano English are also native to California, sometimes even being spoken by non-Latino Californians. One example is East Los Angeles Chicano English, which has been influenced by both Californian and African American Vernacular English . The coastal urban accent of California traces many of its features back to Valleyspeak : a social dialect arising in
560-546: The California Vowel Shift , was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California . This helped to define an accent emerging primarily among youthful, white, urban, coastal speakers, and popularly associated with the valley girl and surfer dude youth subcultures . The possibility that this is, in fact, an age-specific variety of English
600-589: The close central rounded vowel [ʉ] or close front rounded vowel [y] for /u/ are widespread in Californian speech, the same high degree of fronting for /oʊ/ is found predominantly among young speakers. The effects of the California vowel shift have been noted in varieties of Californian Spanish , particularly in the Bay Area . One dialect of English, mostly reported in California's rural interior, inland from
640-401: The cot-caught merger . Other vowel changes, whose relation with the shift is uncertain, are also emerging: except before /l/ , /u/ is moving through [ ʉ ] towards [ y ] ( rude and true are almost approaching reed and tree , but with rounded lips), and /oʊ/ is moving beyond [əʊ] . /ʊ/ is moving towards [ ʌ ] (so that, for example, book and could in
680-525: The nonstandard accents of the South Midland and Southern United States, speakers of such towns as Redding and Merced have been found to use the word anymore in a positive sense and the verb was in place of the standard English plural verb were . Related other features of note include the pin–pen merger , fill–feel merger , and full–fool merger . The Great Depression 's westward Dust Bowl migrations of settlers into California from
720-499: The 1940s and early 1950s, local common usage was primarily the freeway name preceded by the definite article, such as " the Hollywood Freeway ". It took several decades for Southern California locals to start to commonly refer to the freeways with the numerical designations, but usage of the definite article persisted. For example, it evolved to "the 605 Freeway" and then shortened to "the 605". Valley girl A valley girl
760-622: The 1980s among a particular white youthful demographic in the San Fernando Valley , including Los Angeles . Boontling is a jargon or argot spoken in Boonville, California , with only about 100 speakers today. The popular image of a typical southern California speaker often conjures up images of the so-called Valley girls popularized by the 1982 hit song by Frank and Moon Zappa , or " surfer-dude " speech made famous by movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High . While many phrases found in these extreme versions of California English from
800-560: The 1980s may now be considered passé, certain words such as awesome , totally , for sure , harsh , gnarly , and dude have remained popular in California and have spread to a national, even international, level. A common example of a northern Californian colloquialism is hella (from "(a) hell of a (lot of)", and the euphemistic alternative hecka ) to mean "many", "much", "so" or "very". It can be used with both count and mass nouns. For example: "I haven't seen you in hella long"; "There were hella people there"; or "This guacamole
840-464: The California dialect start to sound, to a GA speaker, more like buck and cud ), /ʌ/ is moving through [ ɜ ] , sometimes approaching [ ɛ ] ( duck, crust, what, etc. are sounding like how U.S. Southerners pronounce them, or like how other Americans might pronounce deck, crest, wet, etc.). New vowel characteristics of the California shift are increasingly found among younger speakers. For example, while some characteristics such as
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#1732859066121880-490: The Mission District in the late 19th century. It is today spoken only by some of the oldest Irish American and possibly Jewish residents of the city. From before the 1870s to the 1890s, Irish Americans were the largest share of migrants coming to San Francisco, the majority arriving by way of Northeastern U.S. cities like New York and Boston , thus bringing those cities' ways of speaking with them. In San Francisco,
920-448: The Mission District quickly became a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood, and its local dialect became associated with all of San Francisco as a way to contrast it with the rest of California. Sounding like a "real San Franciscan" therefore once meant sounding "like a New Yorker", the speakers said to "talk like Brooklynites". Other names included the "south of the Slot" (referring to
960-498: The Southern California, freeways are often referred to either by name or by route number but with the addition of the definite article "the", such as " the 405 North", " the 99 " or " the 605 (Freeway) ". This usage has been parodied in the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch " The Californians ". In contrast, typical Northern California usage omits the definite article. When Southern California freeways were built in
1000-555: The Southern United States, namely from Oklahoma , Texas , Missouri , and Arkansas , is the presumable cause of this rural white accent's presence in California's Central Valley . Rural northern California was also settled by Oklahomans and Arkansans, though perhaps more recently in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the region's timber industry boom . However, even in a single town, any given individual's identification with working and playing outdoors versus indoors appears to be
1040-571: The Western United States. A few phonological processes have been identified as being particular to urban and coastal California English. However, these vowel changes are by no means universal in Californian speech, and any single Californian's speech may only have some or none of the changes identified below. These sounds might also be found in the speech of some people from areas outside of California. One topic that has begun to receive much attention from scholars in recent decades has been
1080-479: The adoption of the word hapa (itself originally a Hawaiian borrowing of English "half" ) to mean someone of mixed European/Islander or Asian/Islander heritage. In 1958, essayist Clifton Fadiman pointed out that northern California is the only place (besides England and the area surrounding Ontario and the Canadian Prairies ) where the word chesterfield is used as a synonym for sofa or couch . In
1120-403: The area as they receive more scrutiny than dialects in other nearby regions. Linguistic characteristics of valleyspeak are often thought to be "silly" and "superficial" and seen as a sign of low intelligence. Speakers are also often perceived as "materialistic" and "air-headed" . The use of "like" or the quotative phrase "be like" are often ideologically linked to California and Valleyspeak despite
1160-445: The cable car track running down Market Street) or "south of Market" accent. Pronunciation features of this accent included: Overall, starting in the later half of the 20th century, San Francisco has been undergoing dialect levelling towards the broader regional Western American English , for example: younger Mission District speakers now exhibit a full cot–caught merger, show the vowel shift of urban coastal Californians, and front
1200-403: The emergence of a vowel-based chain shift in California. The image in this section illustrates the California vowel shift on a vowel chart . The vowel space of the image is a cross-section (as if looking at the interior of a mouth from a side profile perspective); it is a rough approximation of the space in a human mouth where the tongue is located in articulating certain vowel sounds (the left
1240-561: The linguistic heritage of the Californios as well as more recent immigration from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. High concentrations of various ethnic groups throughout the state have contributed to general familiarity with words describing (especially cultural) phenomena. For example, a high concentration of Asian Americans from various cultural backgrounds, especially in urban and suburban metropolitan areas in California, has led to
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1280-529: The major coastal cities, has been popularly described as a "country," "hillbilly," or "twang" variety. This California English variety is reminiscent of and presumably related to Southern or South Midland U.S. accents , mostly correlated with white, outdoors-oriented speakers of the Central Valley . It has been studied even as far north as Trinity County but could possibly extend farther, and as far south as Kern County (metropolitan Bakersfield). Similar to
1320-539: The most ethnically diverse U.S. states , English speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds began to pick up different linguistic elements from one another and also developed new ones; the result is both divergence and convergence within California English. Overall, linguists who studied English before and immediately after World War II tended to find few, if any, patterns unique to California. While California English continues to evolve, today it still falls within
1360-570: The now-widespread use of the terms among youth, which results in their also receiving the "superficial" cast. In the national understanding, California speech is thought to be a product of the combination of Valley girl and surfer dude speech, and "is associated with good English, but never proper". A study on regional language ideologies done in California in 2007 found that, despite its prevalence and association with California in past decades, Californians themselves do not consider "Valley girls" to be an overly prevalent social or linguistic group within
1400-669: The quotative phrase "be like" are often ideologically linked to California and Valleyspeak despite the now-widespread use of the terms among youth, which results in their also receiving the "superficial" cast. In the national understanding, California speech is thought to be a product of the combination of Valley girl and surfer dude speech, and "is associated with good English, but never proper". A study on regional language ideologies done in California in 2007 found that, despite its prevalence and association with California in past decades, Californians themselves do not consider "Valley girls" to be an overly prevalent social or linguistic group within
1440-477: The rise began much later in the phrase." Even though the gender difference is notable, the majority of both men and women speak in uptalk in Southern California . In fact, 100% of the participants used uptalk when they asked a confirming question, such as "Go all the way to the right in the middle where it says Canyon Hills?" According to the article "What's Up With Upspeak?", when women use Valleyspeak, it
1480-414: The rise began much later in the phrase." Even though the gender difference is notable, the majority of both men and women speak in uptalk in Southern California . In fact, 100% of the participants used uptalk when they asked a confirming question, such as "Go all the way to the right in the middle where it says Canyon Hills?" According to the article "What's Up With Upspeak?", when women use Valleyspeak, it
1520-590: The state. State residents listed factors such as immigrant populations and north–south regional slang as more relevant than Valleyspeak within the state. Amanda Ritchart, a doctoral candidate studying linguistics at the University of California, San Diego , analyzed 23-year-olds (college age students) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities, specifically in the Southern California region. After this study, Ritchart once stated, "Women used uptalk more frequently than men did. Their pitch rose higher overall, and
1560-536: The state. State residents listed factors such as immigrant populations and north–south regional slang as more relevant than Valleyspeak within the state. Amanda Ritchart, a doctoral candidate studying linguistics at the University of California, San Diego , analyzed 23-year-olds (college age students) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities, specifically in the Southern California region. After this study, Ritchart once stated, "Women used uptalk more frequently than men did. Their pitch rose higher overall, and
1600-422: The steady use of uptalk and its vocabulary. This lends itself to explicit language ideologies about dialects in the area as they receive more scrutiny than dialects in other nearby regions. Linguistic characteristics of valleyspeak are often thought to be "silly" and "superficial" and seen as a sign of low intelligence. Speakers are also often perceived as "materialistic" and "air-headed" . The use of "like" or
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