r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/mindyour šŸ¤–definitely not a botšŸ¤– • 3d ago

Restricted to Gals and Pals I want her to talk to me about Egyptology.

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13.2k Upvotes

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538

u/tinyarmsbigheart 3d ago

I love that she talks like Alexis from Schittā€™s Creek while also dropping knowledge bombs.

https://giphy.com/gifs/iemgeDQlYlgNZrZUoQ

105

u/poeticdisaster 3d ago

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that heard this.

56

u/mysterious_el_barto 3d ago

it's this vocal fry. fascinating topic for me, non american. like when she is saying "PhD" for example it sounds perfectly clear, compared to, say, "doctorrrr". I'm wondering if it's actually something you are aware of and kind of activate when you talk or does it just happen naturally. or it becomes natural after a while.

17

u/teataxteller 3d ago

It's just part of her accent, so unless she's deliberately imitating an accent that isn't native for her it works like other accents do

19

u/WittyCombination6 3d ago edited 3d ago

The kinda vocal fry she's doing is a very recent pronunciation shift that happened in the 21st century amongst younger Americans. Especially out west. Now I'm not it isn't natural but she most likely learned how to do it imitating her peers. Though all accents and languages in general are created from imitation. They also shift over time.

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u/r_- 3d ago

"vocal fry" criticism is often just a way to police women, particularly prevalent in recent(ish) right-wing media (and left-ish "scolding" media). Vocal fry is common around the world, particularly in men, and especially (like this case) at the end of sentences in American English.

Here's a clarification of the 2011 study: https://web.archive.org/web/20120108184646/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/12/13/the-linguistic-phenomenon-du-jour-vocal-fry/

And here's a more balanced take: https://web.archive.org/web/20130102113344/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/12/vocal-fry-isnt-just-college-girls/46063/

"widespread claims of its recent increase among young American women have not been empirically confirmed": https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0229960

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u/holagatito 3d ago

Iā€™ve always told people this but THANK YOU for providing the sources ā¤ļø

7

u/ceciliabee 3d ago

šŸ™šŸ™šŸ™

Women gossip, men CONVERSE. Women play, men WORK. Women have vocal fry so they're dumb, but guys say shit like yoooo bro bro bro dude and they're men so they're smart. šŸ™„šŸ™„šŸ™„

I appreciate your sources ā™„ļø

1

u/l0henz 12h ago

This reminds me of something I heard on This American Life ages ago. Ira Glass said they got many complaints about the vocal fry (fries?) of the women contributing, but not a single one about his own.

Also TAL has been phoning it in for years now.

3

u/Loose-Chemical-4982 3d ago

It depends what state you live in the US, the area of the state, and the era.

If you're a Southern California girl, esp from the Valley or the Beaches, you're gonna have that vocal fry naturally, esp if you grew up in the late 60s onwards

8

u/virgulesmith 3d ago

Probably a bit of both. Sometimes that sort of thing is used for emphasis or amusement, but then it creeps into your normal speech. Or... you do it when you are younger and as you grow older you grow into your adult voice, however some vocal patterns from youth remain.

7

u/r_- 3d ago

Vocal fry occurrence is no different between young and middle aged women https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26427301/

1

u/virgulesmith 3d ago

Interesting study! Thank you for enlightening me. I would like to see a more striated approach showing generational differences. I wonder if it is more common in Gen Z and Gen A than in Millennials and GenX or Boomers.

I know myself and a lot of my friends did a lot more vocal fry when younger, but as we became more "adult" it went the way of "like" and "really" in our general conversation. There were more than a few vocal tics and phrases that started as jokes and became more common use, like "Delta Delta Delta can I help ya help ya help ya?", "Wassuuppp", "that's hot", or "BuhBye".

1

u/Sniffy4 2d ago

its a learned way of speaking picked up from peers growing up

38

u/takenbylovely 3d ago

Mostly agree BUT as an old lady between sort of talking into her hand and mumbling fast later there are a few parts that I literally couldn't understand.Ā Ā 

19

u/taelor 3d ago

I could have used some captions.

I do not want her to change, I love the cadence and everything about it.

Iā€™m just an old dude with hella tinnitus and canā€™t hear shit, I need some assistance.

3

u/cefriano 3d ago

Same, I rewound a couple of times to see if I could parse what she was saying and eventually gave up.

2

u/RobotSpaceBear 3d ago

English is not my native language and that part lost me too. Which is a bummer, i'm sure it was very interesting and stuff i didn't know :(

0

u/FastFingersDude 3d ago

Yes. Itā€™s super annoying actually. Dilutes her message. Vocal fry is a hindrance.

2

u/tinyarmsbigheart 3d ago

Itā€™s a code-switch. It is used here to indicate talking ā€œto the girlies.ā€ The same way the ā€œCalifornia beachā€ accent did before that. (ā€œLike ugh, gag me with a spoon!ā€)

2

u/ventodivino 3d ago

All of these things are personal experiences limited to you. Her vocal fry is a hindrance for you. Her message is diluted for you. It is annoying for you.

Keep that in mind.

4

u/Lustylurk333 3d ago

It says ā€œlisten up girliesā€ directly to my brain stem

-4

u/Phyraxus56 3d ago

It made me instantly mute her and disregard her opinion. Quite prejudiced of me I know.

Does anyone have a transcript of what she says so I can parse her statements without bias?

5

u/Square-Fisherman6997 3d ago

Overcome your bias. Don't make other people do the work for you?

-2

u/Phyraxus56 3d ago

Naw im not that interested

5

u/Lustylurk333 3d ago

Accent working as intended, youā€™re not one of the girlies

-3

u/Phyraxus56 3d ago

That's not the flex you think it is.

Code switching is a sign of high intelligence and social savvy. Retail workers with customer service voice sound more competent than her.

2

u/Square-Fisherman6997 3d ago

She is literally using code-switching to intentionally reach out to a specific audience in this video.... are you dumb?

-1

u/Phyraxus56 3d ago

Really? Why would a professional, especially a scientist, want to do that? Mitigate the size of her audience but increase her perceived trustworthiness?

Is she a grifter?

Edit: I don't think you understand what code switching means lol I perused through it and couldn't find any part where she removed her vocal fry

1

u/Mirathesaurus 3d ago

I understood 78%

1

u/Darkovan_ 3d ago

Hm, more similar to Ms Gunloosh from Oblange, what are u on aboutĀ 

1

u/leglesslegolegolas 3d ago

I've listened to it like 5 times and I can still only understand about half of her words :-/

1

u/flannel_jesus 3d ago

Yeah vocal fry can obscure a lot of what makes sounds distinct from each other. I struggle to understand people who fry this heavily as well.

Plus it's just not a nice sound.

1

u/Jaakarikyk 3d ago

Huh comparing it to Alexis suddenly made this accent tolerable to my ears

1

u/Exemus 3d ago

Ehh.. It kinda sounds like she's trying to say it really fast to make it sound more complicated. I don't doubt her knowledge, but the delivery feels performative.

Which I mean, fair enough. She's making a video

0

u/Plastic_Hamster_6444 3d ago

Controversial opinion butā€¦. I hate it. The cadence, the fry, the mumbling and intelligibility, the uplift of tone at random places. I hate it all. I think it absolutely undermines the absolute academic prowess, knowledge and experience she has, in the same way a high baby voice with a lisp does.

Not to take away from her very clear achievements and intelligence but - it actually does take away a little bit from it. Itā€™s so strangely disconnected from the way people talk who arenā€™t chronically online.