Speech experts claim that the popular social media app TikTok is influencing the way we speak, as it becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives.
This may sound bizarre but Christopher Strelluf, an associate professor of linguistics at the University of Warwick in England, told the news outlet National World that TikTokers, specifically young women are using certain language features that will eventually lead to most people speaking similarly.
These features include “uptalking” which occurs when a person inflects — or changes the pitch of their voice — a sentence to sound like a question. Like when Julia Fox went viral for saying “Uncut Gems” in the same inflection.
Influencers adopt these unique vocal characteristics instead of speaking monotonously because a varied tone is more engaging and exciting for listeners, even if it might sound unusual.
Strelluf told the outlet that young women especially are using such language features as inflection and “vocal fry” in an “innovative way.”
“In almost all studies of language change, the innovators of language seem to be young women — spread through use by young women,” he told the outlet.
“In general, the way young women use language is the future of the way language evolves. So any changes we hear by young women are probably the future of English.”