Are Americans becoming mealy-mouthed mumblers, or is this just some sort of linguistic fad that I'm simply going to have to endure, like hearing people blare out "Not!" or shouting "Amazeballs!"? It seems to me that there's been a proliferation of presenters on YouTube who no longer care to enunciate their words: they speak in a combination of a mumble, a slur, and a whine. It's extremely annoying to listen to, and I'm going to show you three examples of what I mean below. Is this really the future of YouTube? The future of American English?
(These are YouTube Shorts, so I can't embed them.)@CohenThompson (slur, mumble)
JapanEat (very mumbly)
Chef_Tyler (less mumble, more whine)
My ears are bleeding.
Yes, they are all hard to listen to.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me of an incident from early in my labor relations career. I was doing my first arbitration as the advocate for management. Understandably, I was nervous and had written out my opening statement so as to ensure I didn't forget to raise any key points. Before I was halfway done, the arbitrator, who was from New Orleans, stopped. In that thick Louisiana drawl, he said, "Son, you're gonna have to slow down; I can't understand a thing you are saying."