I've just come across evidence that the much-despised antipodean rising inflection habit has gone full circle and has now been superimposed on written (well, at least on *some* written) discourse (citation: a Freecycle group - sorry, it's a closed group and therefore cannot substantiate with a web ref, he said primly and conscientiously...):
(start quote) ..........................
Hi i am hoping that someone has got some exercise equiptment lurking somewhere that perhaps needs a new home??
I have lost quite a bit of weight and wanted to keep it going with adding some exercise?
Any offers would be fab.
Thanks for reading
...................................(sic)
What is absolutely amazing is that no-one would have dreamed of writing this even 10 years ago - my thesis is that people have just got so used to the sound and feel of saying stuff like this that when they come to the (relatively marginal) job of writing, the inflection is replicated in text. I'm quite fascinated by this...
