In recent years, there has been a lot written about the linguistic phenomenon known as “upspeak.” (In past years too, but who’s counting.)
The content ranges from cynical to sophisticated, not to say speculative. At any rate, it’s something that Millennials characteristically do.
Embracing Upspeak
I’m not interested in saying it’s good or bad, or getting to some root cause. What can you really do with that information, anyway?
We might as well accept it. So, I want to introduce some new punctuation that will help us reason about it. I call it, “The Semillennial”:
Allow me to explain.
The Semillennial is most frequently used in long compound sentences. For example, “I woke up <semillennial> then I got in my car <semillennial> then I drove to the store <semillennial> and I picked up some orange juice.”
You can probably hear that in your head.
OK, Boomer
The Semillennial isn’t just some verbal tick. It’s a sophisticated mechanism by which stream of consciousness is joined. Each rising tone buys the speaker just enough time to phrase the next thought, while informing the listener there’s more to come.
A period used in conjunction with the Semillennial is just a period, though its tonal contrast allows the listener to determine that the thought has been finished. It is this author’s belief that additional vocal fry simply serves to embellish the point. However, further research is necessary.
With Power? Comes Responsibility
Like most powerful tools, the Semillennial must be used responsibly. It structures speech in such a way that the listener can signal agreement and understanding, without fully grasping the content.
The following diagram illustrates this risk:
Repeated affirmation throughout the thought builds inertia towards agreement, which may be difficult to overcome. Consider the following, “I woke up <semillennial> then I got in my car <semillennial> then I robbed a bank <semillennial> and I picked up some orange juice.”
Fortunately, if you’ve overthought this as much as me, it’s pretty easy to notice.