Some find the current trend for wearing leggings ridiculous. Others balk at the idea of having bum implants to keep in style. My fashion phobia is uptalk.

Uptalk, or the "Affect" as it is known in the US, is the vocal technique that makes the end of every sentence sound like a question. Some believe that this irritatingly chirpy speech pattern began in the San Fernando valley in California in the 1980s, when the Valley Girl accent was used by rich American teenagers whose chief pastimes were surfing and shopping and who peppered their conversation with words and phrases such as "like, totally", "you know" and "dude".

The 1995 film Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone, captures the Valley Girl accent to perfection. Anyone who has seen it will be familiar with the way Silverstone talks? Like, when she's on the phone? Or like, totally supposed to be doing homework?

The question is, if uptalking has its origins back in the 1980s, why is it only now becoming an alarmingly ubiquitous social trend? Increasingly, on public transport I find I am forced to listen to young women talking like Lindsay Lohan and assorted WAGs; they seem completely unable to complete a sentence without using the word "like" ten times.

In Britain, uptalk started among teenage girls, as many trends do, and was then picked up by upper middle-class women in their twenties and early thirties. But I'm afraid it didn't stop there. Increasingly I hear the Affect coming from the mouths of young, professional men which, in my opinion, makes them sound like young, stupid men. Also, rather bizarrely, middle-aged people have also adopted the trend. This could just be a by-product of hearing their children speaking like this but it's growing so rapidly I am starting to wonder if they are making something of a conscious decision to adopt this way of talking.

Experts have suggested this linguistic phenomenon could be down to low self-esteem. The continual questions show people are asking for approval before making a strong statement. They are basically making sure their opinion will be accepted by others before committing to it.

Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Edinburgh University, Robert Ladd, says there is is probably a little bit of truth in that. "Maybe it does indicate uncertainty, but you could also use it to signal politely that you would like somebody to agree with you or make sure they are following you," he says. If the low self-esteem theory is true then the question to be asked is: where did all these self-esteem problems come from? And would it be ridiculous to suggest that since this accent has been adopted from celebrity culture (Paris Hilton is the perfect example of the uptalker), this would seem to suggest that all celebrities who speak in this manner are suffering from low self-esteem?

Professor Ladd says: "I wouldn't say it's particularly a case of the celebrity culture. There is so much interchange between all the different varieties of the English language. This just happens to attract attention because it annoys some people."

In a world where celebrities are blamed for everything from anorexia to debt problems, this exoneration may come as something of a surprise. However, no matter where it came from and who is to blame, it doesn't solve the problem of how to get rid of uptalk for good.

In an ideal world, I would like to keep children away from any form of media that encourages uptalk and makes it sound fashionable until they are at least 18 but, unfortunately, that's an unrealistic solution.

A more feasible idea would be to give young people self-esteem classes in school to stop them feeling like they have to follow the crowd just to fit in by speaking like someone who has forgotten how to form sentences. Or perhaps, more simply, the government could consider including elocution lessons into the curriculum.

In many ways people, including employers, judge you the second you open your mouth. The way you speak is important and people should be taught how to speak with correct pronunciation, tone and how to regulate their conversation according to the situation. I don't want everyone to start speaking like BBC newsreaders but would anyone really miss this surfeit of interrogatives?

  • What do you think? Comment below or e-mail features@theherald.co.uk (with the subject line Think Tank). We'll bring you the best responses later this week. And if you have a radical idea you'd like us to consider for a Think Tank, e-mail us an outline.