Inflection Of Our Voice

A friend came over one morning last week.
As soon she got into my kitchen, she apologized for the need to make a phone call.
She was scheduling her car for some new tires.
There was a little back and forth about time and procedure.

Apparently the person on the other end of the phone call asked her name.
She answered with the inflection of a question.
She was asked her address.
Her inflection was the same.

You do it, too, I said when she hung up.
Do what? She asked confused.
You say your name like a question, I tried to explain.
I had to give her an example of what I meant.

I do it, too, I admitted.
I caught myself the other day when I had to make a few phone calls.
Can I have your name, they asked me.
Gina Gallagher? I said with a question-like inflection to my voice.

My friend laughed.
Oh, my, she said, I do that, too!
I never noticed it before you said something, she went on.
I wonder why we do that? She asked, obviously thinking about it.

I have thought about it, but don’t have any clear cut answer, I explained.
I mean, I know my name.
I know who I am, I said.
What would I say my name like a question? I wondered out loud.

Later that afternoon, I had to give my address over the phone.
I noticed that I even used the same upward inflection when I said that as well.
There was no explanation.
There was no real reason for answering with a fact stated as a question.

Take notice.
You probably do it, too.
I have no idea why many of us do it when we know that our answer is simple truth.
Our name and address are easy answers that should be said with a declarative inflection.

Whether it’s called the upward inflection, high-rising terminal or simply “uptalk”, the habit of making statements sound like questions is a genuine linguistic mystery.”The short answer is no-one knows,” says Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania…Liberman and other linguists hypothesize that uptalk could date as far back as the 9th Century. “It has been suggested that this distribution of rising inflection in sentences in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland probably had something to do with the Scandinavian influence there,” he says, “but that’s just a hypothesis, like everything else.” (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28708526)

Can you imagine if we shared the Gospel and used the inflection of a question?
Can you imagine if we told about Jesus dying on the the cross with an upward inflection in our voice?
Can you imagine if we told about Jesus rising from the dead with a question mark?
What should be declarative sounds subjective and unsure with upward inflection.

Truth is not subjective.
Truth is absolute.
Truth is not up for debate.
Truth is truth because God said so.

We speak Truth on the authority of God’s Word.
We speak truth with no upward inflection in our voice because what God has said is true.
Declare.
Tell with confidence and surety.

Always give a reason for the hope that you have.
Do this with gentleness.
Do this with respect.
Declare truth with a period at the end of the sentence, not a question mark.