Fake accents

[masonma71]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it incredibly irritating that half the country seems to have adopted this "raised intonation" accent, like every time they speak they put a question mark on the end of each sentence

[boxtops]

Yes - I wouldn't say half the country, but it's always annoyed me, it's not new.

[NazNomad]

No, it's not just you. The AQI is annoying but it has always been a part of some UK dialects.

Unfortunately, it is now commonly used as an - 'I'm talking sh1t but need it to sound interesting, and need to know you're actually listening to my drivel' - tool.

[MickyMacgraw]

You mean when someone says something similar to... "So are we going to the club like?"

If so it has become molded into our daily verbal fabric I'm afraid.

[jno]

no, it's on things that aren't questions... So I went to the club?

It's said to derive from Australian intonation, as picked up from too much watching Neighbours. Doesn't bother me.

[karenmac60]

I think it was Stephen Fry who called it Inflection Infection. I think it's too many people growing up watching Aussie soaps

[ELVIS68]

White kids speaking like black gangsters are the most annoying

[masonma71]

You hit the nail on the head there Naz but what do the initials AQI stand for?

[boxtops]

Acquired QI (from watching too much Stephen Fry)? -->>?

[MickyMacgraw]

ELVIS68 a new language has emerged which is a mixture of Jamaican patois, East end cockney and American hip hop, just an urban mix which all the youths regardless of colour, religion and class use now.

[NazNomad]

Australian Question Intonation ... another submission from the amazing Mr. Fry.

[jno]

you can't watch too much Fry - if I didn't follow his every word I would never have known that women don't like sex.

[NazNomad]

... and Mockney ... WHY?

[boxtops]

LOL jno....

[MickyMacgraw]

Mockney is more Jamie Oliver and Dick Van Dyke naz.

[NazNomad]

I know, but still ... WHY? lol

[MickyMacgraw]

Watch this, funny if you're a Danny Dyer fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeH4TRI3kd0

[ELVIS68]

Johnny Vaughan is the biggest fraudster when comes down to false accents

[masonma71]

Elvis, yes have noticed that accent too, especially in kids/teenagers. Just very very annoying

[Beswad]

Very annoying. My ear drums twitches everytime I hear the raised of intonation in every given answer, making me want to strangle them. I find young girls do it more making them sound more fashionable with imported TV programes.

[andy-hughes]

Actually Elvis, Mark Lamarr is a bigger accent fraud - he sounds like a Cockerney, he was born in Swindon!

The speech pattern to which you refer masonma71 is wonderfully referred to by Rory McGrath as the 'mornic interogative' - and yes, it is irritating, but t'was ever thus.

Speech patterns evolve over time, and always annoy someone somewhere - we just have to let them flow over us.