Why have we raised a generation (or more) of women who speak like crap?

[SheilaT]

14. A couple of comments.

The rising inflection has been around a long time now, decades. The "vocal fry" has also been around longer than people realize, mainly in girl singers. Think Janis Joplin.

Also, language changes. And the older generation always complains about the younger generation. Always.

But back to the language thing. Watch movies made in the 1930's, and you will hear accents that just don't exist any more. Part of it is that there were conventions of pronunciation and intonation that existed for acting and public speaking that simply don't exist now, and part of it is that accents themselves change over time. I also understand, that from my reading of stuff about language and linguistics, that language changes much more quickly in non-literate or pre-literate societies than in literate ones. It's also possible that the ubiquitisness of sound recordings have somewhat slowed down changes, but not totally.

I personally get far more worked up over various grammatical and usage errors, such as lie/lay confusion, confusion of personal pronouns ("Me and Walter went downtown" or "They served my wife and I a delicious meal&quot .