Studies Show Young Girls Are, Like, Totally Responsible For The Way We Talk
Girls have, like, literally changed the way we speak. 💁🏻
Young women have been criticized for the way they speak since the 15th century—a constant disapproval that follows them into early adulthood and the workplace. Vocal techniques like uptalk—when declarative sentences are stated with the intonation of a question—or vocal fry—when the quality of the voice is creaky and low pitched (think: Kim Kardashian) are both seen as entirely unprofessional.
Many think women use these speaking techniques as subconscious defense mechanisms because they're constantly anticipating interruptions from male coworkers. I think Melissa Lozada-Oliva's poem "Like Totally Whatever," says it best: "It's like maybe I'm always speaking in questions because I'm so used to being cut off."
Linguistic expert Gretchen McCulloch made it her job to study young women's communication tactics through history. Contrary to popular belief, she's found that girls have influenced the evolution of language in amazing ways, and we should stop shaming them for their lingo.
McCulloch's research say young women are bonafide innovators who have constantly added new words into our culture for decades.
Everyone gives Shakespeare a lot of credit for adding thousands of new words into the English language, but historians have started to call the validity of this into question. If he invented all of these new words, how would his audience have known what he was talking about? Katherine Martin, head of U.S. Dictionaries at Oxford Press suggests he was writing down what people around him were saying.
A study at the University of Helsinki found that young women have been pruning the English language as early as 1417—eliminating archaic words and adding new slang into their dialogue.
The study examined 6,000 personal letters written by young people between 1417 and 1681. Words like "ye," "hath," "doth," and "maketh" were changed or eliminated altogether and young women altered their writing styles faster than men.
Sociolinguists also found that young women are responsible for 90 percent of our culture's linguistic changes.
This fact is so well-established that scholars aren't even surprised by statistics like this anymore. Another study finds that men lag behind women in their ability to pick up new trends in language by at least a generation.
So why are women treated as is if their speech patterns make them unintelligent in both social and professional situations?
Good old-fashioned sexism is responsible for this one, folks.
The next time you hear a young woman talk, listen closely. She's probably showing you the way of the future.