Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 13:05:49 -0500

From: "Gregory J. Pulliam" HUMPULLIAM[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MINNA.ACC.IIT.EDU

Subject: Re: "Valley Girl talk"



Isn't there some disagreement about "Valley Speak" or "Valley Girl Talk"?

Frank Zappa's record (1980 or so) provided the name for what is, now at

least, a nationwide sort of teen dialect? (question intonation!!) My 13

year old daughter heard my Zappa record and said that was how some of the girls

in her 8th grade class talk here in Chicago. Zappa called it "Valley Girl"

talk, but he was (God rest his soul) a resident of the San Fernando Valley

and his daughter was a teenager at the ime he wrote the song and invited her

to "babble" (his word, not mine) on tape in her friends' dialect which he

found amusing. I don't think this is enough evidence on which to base a

claim of origin for val-speak. It's possible that had Zappa lived in

Winnetka at the time, the song and the speak might have been called

"Winnetka Girl", isn't it? Is there evidence out there for the origin of

valspeak that's more substantial?

Greg Pulliam