A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, from the Los Angeles commuter communities of the San Fernando Valley. Valleyspeak, or Valspeak, is a California English social dialect and accompanying vocal features, best associated with valley girls, though elements of it have spread to other demographics, including men called "Val dudes".
Valleyspeak is popularly characterized by both the steady use of uptalk and its vocabulary. This lends itself to explicit language ideologies about dialects in the area as they receive more scrutiny than dialects in other nearby regions.
Linguistic characteristics of valleyspeak are often thought to be "silly" and "superficial" and seen as a sign of low intelligence. Speakers are also often perceived as "materialistic" and "air-headed".
The use of "like" or the quotative phrase "be like" are often ideologically linked to California and Valleyspeak despite the now-widespread use of the terms among youth, which results in their also receiving the "superficial" cast. In the national understanding, California speech is thought to be a product of the combination of Valley girl and surfer dude speech, and "is associated with good English, but never proper". A study on regional language ideologies done in California in found that, despite its prevalence and association with California in past decades, Californians themselves do not consider "Valley girls" to be an overly prevalent social or linguistic group within the state.
State residents listed factors such as immigrant populations and north—south regional slang as more relevant than Valleyspeak within the state.
