Hearing people speak the "California Lilt" in the 1980s in LA


How we use the language changes over the years, and it's only when we look back that we realize that there's been a shift. And since Hollywood influences the English-speaking world, and Hollywood is in Los Angeles, California, it's to be expected that the "California Lilt" that started in the 1980s has now become something that just sounds natural to most people.

I just learned the term "California Lilt" and that description is absolutely perfect. I know people who grew up in LA in the '70s and '80s and their lilt is very pronounced. No, of course I won't point it out to them, it's rude to comment on how people talk. Speaking for myself, I have a Twin Cities accent, being from Minneapolis. This is the "man on the six o'clock news", not to be confused with a rural Minnesota accent, which you will often hear comedians mock.

Anyway, since the "California Lilt" has now become how most people, especially young people in the United States, talk, unless they live where there are stronger accents, like on the east coast or the south, you have to go back in time to hear the spoken word without it. And luckily, you can do that by watching old movies. And by old movies, I don't mean old black-and-white ones, just older than the '80s.

For those of you who are old enough to remember how "Valley girls" spoke in the 1980s, with expressions like "ewww.... gag me with a spoon!", or the surfer dudes who said, "Whoa, gnarly, dude!" you can hear it. Of course if you're not old enough to remember the eighties, it would just seem like people always talked like that. They didn't. It was actually kinda funny when it was new, and then it just seem to fold into how people normally talked.

Back when I was a kid, in the '60s and early '70s, I detected a strong influence of Southern United States pronunciation. Even Neil Diamond, a kid from Brooklyn, sang with a tiny bit of a twang. He said "freeeend" instead of "friend". And the Beatles, who were from Liverpool, England, sang with as much of a Southern USA accent as they could. It would often surprise me to hear these people speak during interviews.

The California Lilt can be annoying to hear, but only if you can hear it. It's been part of how several generations of Americans learned to speak, and they don't hear it all. If you can't hear it, congratulations, you're young. If it gets on your last good nerve, calm down, old-timer, it's just how the language evolves over time.

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