Slang, word usage-generational definer?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm surprised they didn't mention "UP TALKING", which to me is the absolute biggest indicator of the lingual deterioration of young people today. It drives me absolutely insane to listen to it.
Up-talking:
"It's like when every phrase? in the middle of your sentence? ends with your voice like turning up? as though it was like the end of a question?....but it really isn't yet? and they just keep like going on and on stringing their thoughts together? so you can't like participate in the conversation? and it's so like incredibly annoying to listen to? and it like sounds like some airhead valley girl?"

[alpinerabbit]

ugh, we had a presentation like that from an american company once.

like, she was also talking too fast? to overseas nurses? whose english isnt, like, that good anyway?

ugh.

[msincredible]

I'm surprised they didn't mention "UP TALKING", which to me is the absolute biggest indicator of the lingual deterioration of young people today. It drives me absolutely insane to listen to it.
Up-talking:
"It's like when every phrase? in the middle of your sentence? ends with your voice like turning up? as though it was like the end of a question?....but it really isn't yet? and they just keep like going on and on stringing their thoughts together? so you can't like participate in the conversation? and it's so like incredibly annoying to listen to? and it like sounds like some airhead valley girl?"

Like a traditional Irish accent?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Like a traditional Irish accent?

Irish accent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GO-irf4ZP4
(warning, pretty silly)

[msincredible]

Do the Irish string all their sentences together without end?

No, but every sentence sounds like a question.

[VeloVT]

I used to work for a political organization. We would organize volunteer phonebanks sometimes. The volunteer training for these events always included the "dammit rule." **IN YOUR HEAD** (and only there), say "dammit" after every sentence.

Hi John, my name is Liza, dammit, and I'm calling with the xyz party, dammit. I wanted to let you know about an event we'll be holding next monday, dammit.

It's pretty hard to do "upspeak" this way .

[malkin]

My experience with Irish conversation is that everybody gets to talk all the time, beep or no beep.

[OakLeaf]

Like, I'm almost 50, and everyone my age says this stuff?

Seriously, I would say the age divide is closer to 60 or 65 for the usages you're describing, in the USA. But I remember in the past, noticing that Canadians spoke a lot more "cleanly." So maybe it just takes 20 years for our slang to work its way north.

I did notice that when I retired from practicing law and quit hanging out with so many lawyers, I definitely had to clean up my language. It's like whenever we were in casual conversation, we got the courtroom behavior out of our system by having every other word be "f***." It didn't take long to find out that that kind of language isn't considered acceptable among non-lawyers.