To me, Your Statements sound like Questions?

[John Bailey]

Still thinking about accents...

I was amused to come across a reprint of the following article today...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4261622,00.html
which begins with the lines:

"Ask yourself: when you make a statement, does it sound more like a question 
because your voice gets higher at the end of the sentence? If so, you are 
suffering from HRT (high-rise terminals), a speech habit that is taking over 
the way we talk. "

Suffering! How cute. Anyway, on this topic, I was also speaking to a friend 
on the weekend who is at university, and who, at a recent class, brought up 
the way Australians in films from the 70s and 80s spoke in this way, 
'suffering' from HRT (fellow Aussies, think Puberty Blues, early Neighbours, 
Sophie from Bardot chuckle chuckle) and it was something which had mostly 
been eliminated from modern (young) Australian speech. It was then explained 
to her by another student that during this period, young girls were educated 
to end their sentences with a rise in pitch, which was considered to be more 
classy and to indicate better breeding. I have no idea who thought this, or 
why, but a quick remembrance of any Australian film or TV from this period 
would seem to corroborate the story. A sad time for us all.

Just thought I'd share.

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