From the always-interesting New York Observer, Jason Horowitz has written an article about “the Affect.”

From the San Fernando Valley, where some think the accent has its origins in the infamous Valley Girl, to the soap stores of Soho, young women are communicating differently. But unlike their Cockney counterpart, they don’t peddle wilted flowers in the London markets. They have college diplomas from Georgetown and Penn, and respectable addresses in Kips Bay and wherever else laundry machines in doorman buildings spin Theory pants and Michael Stars shirts in a black and pastel blur. They sell advertising space and plan events in New York City. They practice law (uhhhhm, ob-juhk-tion?), trade stocks (baiiiigh? seh-uhhhl?), and eat at swanky restaurants (sew guuuuuhhhd.) This Affect, however, is not inherited from parents, though it’s an effective tool for extracting money and presents from them. It’s not even picked up in the playground — except in its more posh precincts. It’s caught from other proudly upper-middle-class girls who love nothing more than to linger on a vowel.

The article includes some observations by John V. Singler, a sociolinguistics professor at New York University, who listened to recordings of the Affect.

There was more pitch range than usual. Usually the extremes of pitch change for emphasis, and this wasn’t the case. In terms of the amount of pitch variation, in ordinary sentences and not in places of emphasis. I hadn’t noticed that before.

Other signature characteristics of the Affect are glottal stops in place of “t’s” and that “high, rising intonation contour, more commonly referred to as “uptalk” — the seemingly contagious practice of lifting the end of every phrase to create the effect of a question.”

On the one hand, Horowitz notes, professional women are paying voice coaches to help them unlearn this accent. (I guess it’s an accent? lol)

On the other hand, it may represent the latest in the ongoing drift of spoken English, or, as Horowitz slyly notes, “The time may not be far off when mothers will be reprimanding their children for not inserting a ‘like’ before an adjective.”