High rising terminal

The high rising terminal (HRT), also known as upspeak, uptalk, rising inflection, or high rising intonation (HRI), is a feature of some accents of English where declarative sentences are uttered with rising-pitch intonation.

Empirically, one report proposes that HRT in American English and Australian English is marked by a high tone (high pitch or high fundamental frequency) beginning on the final accented syllable near the end of the statement (the terminal), and continuing to increase in frequency (up to 40%) to the end of the intonational phrase. New research suggests that the actual rise can occur one or more syllables after the last accented syllable of the phrase, and its range is much more variable than previously thought.

Origins

The origins of HRT remain uncertain. Anecdotal evidence places the conception of the American English variety on the West Coast – anywhere from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest.

With respect to the southern hemisphere, it has been suggested that the feature may have originated in New Zealand.

It is unclear whether the American English varieties and the Oceanic varieties had any influence on each other regarding the spread of HRT.

Usage

In the United States, the phenomenon of HRT may be fairly recent but is an increasingly common characteristic of speech especially among younger speakers. However, serious scientific/linguistic inquiry on this topic has a much more extensive history in linguistic journals from Australia, New Zealand, and Britain where HRT seems to have been noted as early as World War II.

It has been noted in speech heard in areas of Canada, in Cape Town, the Falkland Islands, and in the United States where it is often associated with a particular sociolect that originated among affluent teenage girls in Southern California (see Valleyspeak and Valley girl). It was observed in Mississippi in 1963 (see Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes "Twirling at Ole Miss"). Elsewhere in the United States, this intonation is characteristic of the speech heard in those parts of rural North Dakota and Minnesota that through migration have come under the influence of the Norwegian language.

Although it is ridiculed in Britain as "Australian question intonation" (AQI) and blamed on the popularity of Australian soap operas among teenagers, HRT is also a feature of several UK dialects, especially in mid-Ulster and Belfast English.

A 1986 report stated that in Sydney, it is used more than twice as often by young generations as by older ones, and particularly by women. It also subtly indicates that the speaker is "not finished yet", thus perhaps discouraging interruption.

Effects

Media in Australia, Britain, and the United States have negatively portrayed the usage of HRT, claiming that its use exhibits a speaker's insecurities about the statement and undermines effective speaking. Time reports that it hampers job interviews.

Recent evidence shows that leaders of the peer group are more likely to use HRT in their declaratives than the junior members of the particular peer group. According to University of Pennsylvania phonologist Mark Liberman, George W. Bush began to use HRT extensively in his speeches as his presidency continued. Linguist Robin Lakoff drew attention to the pattern in her book Language and Women's Place, which argued that women were socialized to talk in ways that lacked power, authority, and confidence. Rising intonation on declarative sentences was one of the features Lakoff included in her description of "women's language", a gendered speech style which in her view both reflected and reproduced its users' subordinate social status.

See also

• Valleyspeak
• Sexy baby voice
• Vocal fry

External links

• Guardian article on uptalk
• "Uptalk Is Not HRT" Mark Liberman's Language Log (March 28, 2006)
• Christopher Hitchens defines Uptalk in Vanity Fair.

• Do you speak American? American Varieties: Pacific Northwest
• Lake Bell talks about ‘In a World . . .’ and the politics of dialect Washington Post August 10, 2013
• A Female Senator Explains Why Uptalk Is Part of Women's 'Nature' The Atlantic, January 16, 2014
• From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young Women's Voices? NPR, July 23, 2015
• Young women, give up the vocal fry and reclaim your strong female voice by Naomi Woofe, July 24, 2015
• The uptalk epidemic - Can you say something without turning it into a question? Psychology Today, October 6, 2010.
• 3 speech habits that are worse than vocal fry in job interviews Time, June 4, 2013
• Mark Liberman, "Uptalk uptick?". Language Log, 15 December 2005.