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Are Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears influencing the way you speak? If you're a frequent TikToker, one expert says the answer is probably yes - and pretty soon we'll all start speaking like that.
You might have thought that your accent is solely down to where you live, but you’ll be surprised to learn that it’s not the whole truth.
And who are the people leading the way to changing linguistics? Women.
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According to a linguistics professor, people who post on TikTok have developed their own accent which could be 'the future of English'.
Christopher Strelluf from the University of Warwick has noted that the changing online voice includes things like 'uptalk' and vocal fry'.
If you're not familiar, 'uptalk' means regularly ending sentence with a rising tone, making it sound like you're asking a question even if you're not.
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Vocal fry, on the other hand, is using the lower registers of your voice to achieve a kind of gravelly, breathy sound.
If you pay attention to Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears' speech, both women regularly use uptalk and vocal fry.
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Dr Laura Bailey, a lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Kent, told FEMAIL that those who use slower or deliberate speech are doing it 'to hold the floor in order to get people to continue watching’ and maintain interest.
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Known as the internet voice or TikTalk, you’ll know the accent as soon as you hear it.
Dr Bailey said: “All of these result from the genre: one person is speaking to a camera, and someone who needs to hold the floor in order to get people to continue watching (which is the main point of TikTok).
“They may use a slower, more deliberate speech style than if they were conversing with friends in person, and this can result in a lower pitch and more vocal fry.
“Another way to hold the floor is to use so-called uptalk, as it keeps the audience involved as an active participant, checking that they’re following along, in agreement.
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“I don’t think any of these are new to social media, but TikTok encourages lots more people to broadcast than YouTube or even Instagram, so we find emerging styles, sub-genres and stylistic features of those sub-genres.”
Strelluf told National World that women are often 'linguistic innovators'.
He said: “The way young women use language is the future of the way language evolves. So, any changes we hear by young women are probably the future of English."
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If that's right, get ready for everyone you know to constantly sound like they're doing a TikTok storytime.
Topics: Entertainment, Celebrity, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, TikTok
Britt Jones