Californian Dialect

People from California use the word "like" and "totally" to excess. :D

<<Which Valley? Remember I am not American!>>

Why, the SAN FERNANDO VALLEY of course! ;-)

If you've ever seen "Boogie Nights", "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Valley Girl", "Magnolia", and "Clueless" (when Cher attends a "Val Party" and gets stranded outside a liquor store in Sun Valley, which was actually shot in neighboring North Hollywood where I live), then you've seen the Valley and heard us speak.

More than you ever needed (or wanted) to know about the Valley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley

"People from California use the word "like" and "totally" to excess. :D"

I agree with you on "like", but overusage of totally is only done by "valley girls" and "surfer boys", which are not very common at all.

"Mike, you are stupid. What kind of moron are you? Go do some research on dialects before you embarass yourself by posting any more nonsense on this forum. Idiot."

That says it was written by me but it wasn't (unless it was another Kirk)...this problem has occurred before on this forum...maybe they should set up a system where you log in with a specific screenname so there wouldn't be impersonators anymore.

Mjd (the mod here) said they won't ever do that because it would turn away visitors.

<<Why, the SAN FERNANDO VALLEY of course! ;-) >>

I didn't know the name of it, either :-P

Valley is an L.A. suburb, right?

I've always thought Valley girls live in Silicon Valley....

No, Los Angeles is a HUGE city. San Fernando Valley is just a large valley with quite a few town on the other side of a mountain range from downtown. It is all still within the city. On the other hand, the Valley has been trying to secede from the city in recent years...

"I've always thought Valley girls live in Silicon Valley...."

No, they live in THE Valley a.k.a the San Fernando Valley.

Oh my Gawd!

I am LMAO @ the comment about Valley girls living in Silicon Valley...

LMAOHTY...Fernando Valley, Silicon Valley...just a wee bit of difference there.

And I thought that Valley girls lived in the Dead Valley (that is, Brain Dead) :-P

A good place to hear accents is the University of Kansas' International Dialects of English Archive.

Since there seems to be a lot of curiosity about the valley girl accent (the stereotypical accent of girls from the San Fernando Valley), I checked it out and sure enough, there is a perfect example of it in the archive.

Notice the frequent use of the word "like," one of the things most often associated with valley girl speech.

The second accent is a girl from Orange County or the "O.C" as it is popularly called.

http://www.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/california/california.htm