Thank Yeh-oo in Advance

October 27, 2016 1:35 PM

With some American English-speaking, usually young female speakers, I sometimes perceive a subtle but distinct shift of ... tone, maybe (?), in the middle of the word "you" that makes it sound almost like "yeh-oo" instead of "yo͞o". My American English-speaking, mid-40's female partner neither pronounces the word this way nor does she hear it in others when I point it out. Am I hearing things, or is this "a thing"? What is it called? Is it a "glottal stop"? Why do some people pronounce it like that and others don't?

Some background: I usually sit near the front of my bus in the morning and so I hear almost every "thank you" as people exit. I started noticing that some "thank yous" sound more like "thank yeh-oo" and have started paying attention and hearing it in other situations as well. I am aware of the concept of "vocal fry" and the (controversial) claims that it is primarily a phenomenon occurring with young women. I do not believe what I think I'm hearing is that, nor do I want to claim that this seems to be another "young women's speech pathology." I'm only saying I've noticed it among young female speakers and will readily admit that I might just not being attention in mixed company or when I am among males.

In looking up "vocal fry" I came across "the glottal stop", which might be what I'm hearing. There was an AskMeFi post about the glottal stop last year but the audio files referenced in the answer are no longer available.

posted by majorsteel to Writing & Language (19 answers total)

Where do you live, and is it where you grew up? It may just be an accent thing - Texans, for example, stick about three more vowels into any given word.
posted by restless_nomad at 1:36 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I now realize I have heard this as well but maybe only with the expression "thank you." I haven't before stopped to think about it but I think it is possibly just a slightly emphatic thank you. Now I am going to have to observe.
posted by bz at 1:40 PM on October 27, 2016

Best answer: It's totally a thing! I believe what you are describing is a feature called GOOSE-fronting (the vowel in the word 'goose' is pronounced more forward in the mouth). Or could possibly be that this 'oo' sound is being pronounced like a diphthong by younger dialect speakers near you, which may be more distinct when following a glide like how 'y' (as in 'you') is pronounced in English.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:50 PM on October 27, 2016 [12 favorites]

Best answer: Yes, it's totally a thing. I've heard myself do it, and I'm self-conscious about it. It only happens when I'm in the middle of concentrating deeply on something and I'm interrupted momentarily (like someone gives me something quickly) then I quickly respond. It's unconscious in the moment but I always notice it after I've said it.

Anecdotal, but I've heard my Jewish grandmother do this too, and wondered whether it's part of her accent from growing up in Philadelphia. That wouldn't explain why I've done it, though.
posted by onecircleaday at 1:57 PM on October 27, 2016

There are sooooooo many weird vowel things in American English. A lot of them are regional, even micro-regional. Or even micro-regional and randomly repeating in totally different parts of the country. For example people I knew growing up who were from the outer suburbs of New Orleans would say "melk" for "milk", and then decades later I moved to California where, oddly enough, some people also say it like that. But not everyone? Regional mini-dialects and vowels are weird.

See also the Rust Belt area vowel phenomenon so crazy that it's simply called the Great Vowel Shift. Or, hell, the fact that my Mississippi relatives pronounce the words "my", "pie", and "rye", like "mah", "pah", and "rah".

I've heard "you" with a glottal stop before, but I think only as sung in certain pop songs. I don't recall ever hearing anyone actually say it like that in casual conversation.
posted by Sara C. at 2:13 PM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's also said that way sometimes for stylistic or emphatic purposes — the example that immediately comes to mind is saying 'cute' like "That is keyoot!"
posted by iamkimiam at 2:15 PM on October 27, 2016 [7 favorites]

OMG oy sorry to post again, but I was thinking of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, not the Great Vowel Shift, which had to do with 14th century Britain.
posted by Sara C. at 2:25 PM on October 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Do you mean like this?
posted by humboldt32 at 2:25 PM on October 27, 2016

Best answer: You are hearing things, in the literal sense: I've heard quite a few younger women (under 35) do this with "you" and quite a few things that rhyme with it. It can also appear in "yoohoo!" if someone is saying it in the sense of "is anyone here." I think this is actually happening to all "ooh" sounds that are or could be preceded by "yuh."

I've thought it a Southern thing, but it's also in pop songs and I'm pretty sure it's spreading.
posted by SMPA at 2:26 PM on October 27, 2016

I live in Southern California, and many of the valley girls I know use it. Always thought it was an affectation, but maybe I'm wrong.
posted by Everydayville at 2:50 PM on October 27, 2016

A colleague moved recently to the lower Midwest from Minnesota and he does something similar. On the phone he says "how are yeeow?" and it's somewhere between "ow" and "yo" but longer, almost two syllables, and very distinct. It gets stuck in my head like a song.
posted by a moisturizing whip at 2:52 PM on October 27, 2016

I should add, my Minnesotan acquaintance is young - mid-20s.
posted by a moisturizing whip at 2:58 PM on October 27, 2016

Maybe im misunderstanding you but if/when I have heard it I thought it was intentional and designed to direct focus to the "you" part of "thank you"

Kind of like how in Spanish you can say either "me gusta" or "a mi me gusta" which both mean "I like" and are both, to my limited understanding, valid but the later emphasizes the I in I like.

/not a linguist
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 3:09 PM on October 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

In the interest of completeness: it's not a glottal stop. That's the thing that happens at the very beginning of each syllable when you say "uh-oh."
posted by clavicle at 4:53 PM on October 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

Video or audio of the phenomenon in question would be helpful, because the way I visualized the sound majorsteel is describing is definitely a glottal stop. But other people seem to be interpreting it as more of a "yew" or "yeo".
posted by Sara C. at 5:54 PM on October 27, 2016

I've definitely noticed a shift towards a pitched-up, overemphasized pronunciation that sounds a lot like "think yewwwwww," especially among young, white women (my niece, for example). Is that what you mean?
posted by yellowcandy at 8:02 PM on October 27, 2016

Response by poster: Thank you all for your comments. I think iamkimiam identified it accurately as "goose-fronting." I listened to some clips that seem to back that up, and it also seems to be mostly a Midwestern thing. For the record, I'm from Michigan but I live in Seattle now, and I swear I've met more people here from Michigan than I did when I lived in Michigan, so I could be hearing a bunch of transplanted Midwesterners thanking their bus driver!
posted by majorsteel at 3:11 AM on October 28, 2016

Yes, I think it is especially noticeable with "thank you" and in that phrase it appears to be done at least semi-consciously, a kind of affectation.
posted by BibiRose at 7:08 AM on October 28, 2016

Your description also sounds a bit like this?
posted by eviemath at 11:09 AM on October 29, 2016