# "The Valley" in California **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889 "2014-07-23T23:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/81 "2014-08-26T04:20:56Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > As a Westside Angeleno, I feel qualified to comment. It’s more akin to how people who live in Manhattan think about Queens. The Valley isn’t trashy, just dull. > > And hot. There’s a significant temperature difference when you cross the mountains. Especially Woodland Hills area, 110+ in the summer is not uncommon. Hearing about people dying due to the heat seems to happen every year. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/82 "2014-08-26T06:31:41Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > That video could have easily been made in Hollywood. Contrary to what movies tell you and popular belief, the place is mostly a shit hole. It’s just an urban district like any other. (A lot of people _think_ it’s a shit hole because they were expecting to find only well-to-do white people there. A lot of that video is just regular people waking down the street.) But really the San Fernando Valley ranges a lot in character and demographics, from low-rent apartments to the golf courses of [Toluca Lake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluca_Lake,_Los_Angeles) to the hipsters of “[NoHo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood,_Los_Angeles).” The area is just too big to generalize about, and as for the “Valley Girl accent,” they originally picked that up from the surfers of Malibu, to whom many were kind of like groupies. ETA as **elmwood** points out, I see. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/83 "2014-08-26T08:28:35Z")
Nobody’s sure where uptalk (the rising terminal intonation that’s part of the Valley Girl stereotype) originated: > **[High rising terminal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal)** > > The high rising terminal (HRT), also known as upspeak, uptalk, or high rising intonation (HRI), is a feature of some variants of English where declarative sentences can end with a rising pitch similar to that typically found in yes-or-no questions. HRT has been claimed to be especially common among younger speakers and women, though its exact sociolinguistic implications are an ongoing subject of research. > Empirically, one report proposes that HRT in American English and Australian English is ma... ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/84 "2014-08-26T08:34:13Z")
Note that the Zappas admit that some of the Valley Girl dialect they used in the song was just made up by them. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/85 "2014-08-26T21:01:30Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > It’s just an urban district like any other. (A lot of people _think_ it’s a shit hole because they were expecting to find only well-to-do white people there. A lot of that video is just regular people waking down the street.) But really the San Fernando Valley ranges a lot in character and demographics, from low-rent apartments to the golf courses of [Toluca Lake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluca_Lake,_Los_Angeles) to the hipsters of “[NoHo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood,_Los_Angeles).” > > The area is just too big to generalize about, and as for the “Valley Girl accent,” they originally picked that up from the surfers of Malibu, to whom many were kind of like groupies. > ETA as **elmwood** points out, I see. I know, I live in Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/86 "2014-08-26T21:34:03Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Are you considering a visit to the Golden State? (All the gold of which, of course, is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills in somebody else’s name.) Be careful… you might be scarred forever. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/87 "2014-08-27T21:30:04Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [San Fernando Valley.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fernando_Valley) > > Uber suburbia. As NYC to New Jersey, so L.A. to the S.F.V. But there are some nice areas in the Valley, just as I imagine there must be in NJ. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/88 "2014-08-28T14:36:54Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > My partner is an original Valley Girl. Born and raised in Tarzana in the 1970s and 1980s. She’s pretty normal, but also proud of her Valley roots. > > The way she explained it, Valley Girl culture was mainly limited to the middle- and upper-middle class neighborhoods at the south end of the Valley; Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks, and Studio City. Living south of Ventura Boulevard is something of a status symbol. The Valley is a short-ish drive from the beaches of Malibu, so there was a lot of influence from surfer culture; Valspeak is essentially surfer talk absorbed by teenage girls. > > We just returned from a 10 day trip to the LA area; seven in the Valley (Warner Center). It wasn’t that bad; I kinda’ liked it. Well, except for Van Nuys, but Norm’s at 1:00 AM was pretty cool. I got the impression that the Valley is to Westside Los Angelenos what New Jersey is to those from New York City. I remember Valley Girl because I was 12 when it came out and living in the upper class suburbs NW of DC. The girls in my school were socio-economic soul mates of the valley girls and adopted a lot of the mannerisms when the VG phenomenon hit. They didn’t go so far as “tubular” but things were definately “TO-taly” and “Awesome.” Clothes, shopping, boys, parties, and daddy’s Beemer filled the halls of my high school. ---
**Author:** ![sideshowkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5e9695/32.png) [@sideshowkar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sideshowkar)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889/89 "2014-08-28T17:57:25Z")
I grew up in the Conejo Valley, which is the next valley over, north of “The Valley.” To me, The Valley was the 818 area code. If someone had an 818 phone number, they were from The Valley. Getting to The Valley meant going “Up the Hill.” To get there, you had to go up through the mountains, either on the 101 through the bottom half of Calabasas to the top half, or on the 118 through Simi Valley. It was always hotter than anywhere else. You could actually feel the heat rise as you went up the hill. When you got to the top, it was time to turn on the air conditioner because if you didn’t the crayons would start melting to the seat. Being in such close proximity growing up in the 80’s, I have what I would call a mild Val accent, which turns full-on Valley Girl/Cal Surf when I’m tired. I’m a chick in my 40’s and talk like Jeff Lebowski (the “Dude” one, not to be mistaken for the millionaire). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-valley-in-california/693889.md?page=4)