Psychology Today deemed it an ‘epidemic’. Feminist writer Naomi Wolf argues that it ‘hobbles’ female empowerment. And a BBC report into its origins tentatively points the finger of blame at LA teenagers, Australian immigrants and even ninth century Scandinavians before giving up and declaring it ‘a genuine linguistic mystery’.
It’s upspeak. Or perhaps we should say: it’s upspeak? The trend – also known as upward inflection, high rising terminal or simply uptalk – where a speaker turns a statement into a
question by raising their pitch towards the end of the sentence. “As though”, wrote Professor of Linguistics Robin Lakoff, identifying the pattern some 40 years ago, “one were seeking confirmation, though at the same time the
speaker may be the only one who has the requisite confirmation.”