I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. “What-eeevar!” But is it a real accent like the one found in the Southern states or New England? Or is it affected?
It’s an accent limited to a group rather than an area. People within a group pick it up from each other. Accents are very fluid.
You’d have to define what ‘affected’ means to you.
Sorry, I meant “affected” as in “put on.” I thought perhaps it was a fashion trend or somesuch, since I’ve never met anyone in real life who had it. I realize that this is a silly reason to assume something isn’t real. 
Thick Californian accents are real enough, and that one is associated to an area, hence the name.
Thank you!
I believe the accent gained infamy and exposure from the Frank and Moon Zappa song Valley Girl in 1982:
The way Moon Zappa spoke in that song was based off of what she was hearing at parties at the time from her peers (she was 14 at the time).
I was seeing a girl from New Orleans. She said I had a ‘surfer accent’. I was like, ‘Chyah! As if!’
And she made up some of the slang just for the song
My understanding is that it originated in Southern California mid 1980s, in the San Fernando Valley (suburban Los Angeles), hence “Valley” Girl. Like, oh-my-GAWD, gag me with a spoon! Fer-shure.
The film Valley Girl was made to exploit the popularity of the same named song, but was much better. One of the actresses couldn’t carry off the accent (like oh my god!) so she played her character as being from Malibu. Like, I don’t KNOW how hard it could be, but fer sure it can’t be that hard to rock a bitchin sound. Totally.
I’m on frequent calls with a woman born and raised in SoCal who has a strong Valley Girl accent. It is a thing. And it doesn’t require any slang to be evident. It is phrasing.
And then my friends and I did it at school. We were also 14 at the time.
Is part of this “accent” the act of going UP at the end of every sentence like it’s a question? Or is that something else entirely? It’s a speech pattern I find very annoying, and no matter who does it, in my mind it marks them as not very bright.
As in: “I met this guy? And we went on a date? And now I’ve got a rash? And I think it’s the crabs?”
Totally. 
Yes. It’s called high rising terminal, or “upspeak/uptalk”.
I was going to ask this. I never noticed people ending every sentence as a question until after Val-speak became popular.
I work with several people from Canada who do this all the time. My impression is that it’s mostly women to do it, but that’s from a small sample size.
You mispunctuated “Totally?”.
The high rising terminal gives me two impressions:
- The speaker is an idiot.
- The speaker is exhibiting insecurity. ‘I am making a statement, but I’m insecure about it and require acknowledgement that I am correct’, or ‘Is it OK that I’m making this statement?’, or ‘I am insecure. Please give me your approval.’
Maybe, but at some point, it’s just how they speak.