In Terry Gross's NPR interview
with writer and editor Jessica Grose, professor of linguistics Penny
Eckert, and speech pathologist Susan Sankin, the subject on the table
was the policing of young women’s voices. “People are busy policing
women’s language and nobody is policing older or younger men’s
language,” Eckert says. Two of the speech tics discussed are uptalking
(ending a sentence like it’s a question) and vocal fry (drawing out, or
rasping, the ends of sentences). The clear double standard here? Men
often employ these same tics.
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