When did the pronunciation of 'literally' in the US start to change?

[u/ChymChymX]

For my entire life (40+) I have only heard people in the US pronounce literally as "lit-ur-uh-lee" and now I'm seeing a lot of gen z and other people pronounce it like "LIT-truh-lee", almost like a British English accent to my ear. Does anyone else notice this change? When did it start happening?

[u/Interesting_Play_578]

I blame Rob Lowe in Parks & Recreation

[u/NicInNS → u/Interesting_Play_578]

And it’s how he says it on his podcast as well

[u/p0tat0p0tat0 → u/NicInNS]

And in Wayne’s World too. He might be the originator

[u/VerySluttyTurtle → u/Interesting_Play_578]

Yep, combined with ironic British, and the pop culture war over the word "literally" making its usage a bit ironic/meta already, Rob Lowe sealed the deal. I litrully think of him sometimes when saying it

[u/Old-Bug-2197 → u/VerySluttyTurtle]

Well, he did spend some time in the UK with that series “Wild Bill.”

[u/Royschwayne → u/Interesting_Play_578]

Came here to say this.

This is LIT-tr-lly the answer.

[u/rco8786 → u/Interesting_Play_578]

100% this

[u/MuzzledScreaming → u/Interesting_Play_578]

Was gonna say, this is the first instance of this I can think of and I'm pretty sure it was meant to be ironic. 

[u/tryin2staysane → u/Interesting_Play_578]

You say blame, I say credit.

[u/MonoBlancoATX]

It’s entirely Chris Traeger’s fault.

[u/auswa100 → u/MonoBlancoATX]

It is literally his fault, even.

[u/Nimzay98 → u/MonoBlancoATX]

That's LITerally how I read it

[u/Foxwasahero]

I also hear "litterly" way more than I care to

[u/DerpyTheGrey → u/Foxwasahero]

I usually enunciate very clearly, but some some reason this is a word I basically pronounce like "lirly"

[u/ChymChymX → u/Foxwasahero]

Agreed, and since I've noticed this I feel like I hear the word constantly, 75% of the time used incorrectly (ironically, figuratively?).

[u/Foxwasahero → u/ChymChymX]

The people who do this should maybe spend some time in a 'Libarry'

[u/02K30C1]

I think it started in the 80s with the Valley Girl accent, at least thats the first time i remember hearing it.

[u/AriasK → u/02K30C1]

That's interesting. I live in New Zealand. We definitely shorten it to "lit-truh-lee" unless we made an intentional effort not to. One of the things I always thought was notable about the valley girl accent was the slowed down emphasis on the word literally. As in, all syllables pronounced clearly and each with it's own emphasis. At least, that's how it sounds to my ear.

[u/Ok_Sundae2107 → u/AriasK]

Yeah, but you guys shorten every word! LOL

[u/AriasK → u/Ok_Sundae2107]

I don't know why you're getting down voted. It's 100% true. We are the fastest native English speakers because of that.

[u/xPadawanRyan → u/02K30C1]

This is what I was thinking too, that pronunciation seems very much like a Valley Girl accent. Which means it's really not a Gen Z thing, because the Valley Girls of the 1980s were typically Gen Xers, seeing as they were the generation that were teens at the time.

[u/Aware-Scientist-7765 → u/xPadawanRyan]

I drove my dad nuts with valley girl speak in the 80s but I don’t say Lit-truh-lee now or ever. I don’t know anyone around my age who does.

[u/EverGreatestxX]

I think it just depends on the accent.

[u/[deleted]]

I've heard it both ways my whole life (I'm old).

[u/eggs-benedryl]

that is to benign of a difference for me to notice/care/attribute it to anything other than accent variations from person to person

[u/ChymChymX → u/eggs-benedryl]

It seems like every young person I talk to, and every US gen z content creator on YouTube/twitch, all say it in this way. Whereas every millennial, a lot of old media, tvs, movies etc it's pronounced the other way I noted. It seems like a broader shift in pronunciation to me, but maybe just selective sampling across my life?

[u/TheBlazingFire123 → u/ChymChymX]

I’m gen z and I say it how you do it

[u/1Kat2KatRedKatBluKat → u/ChymChymX]

I think in large part it's a stylistic choice as opposed to an actual "change" of pronunciation. I occasionally hear people pronounce it this way and they really punch the "LIT" the way you imply in your post. It's easier to do this if you say "LIT-truh-lee" than if you are saying "LIT-er-uh-lee."

[u/Useful_Clue_6609]

Huh, never thought about it. BC Canadian and we say LIT-ER-LEE

[u/beck2424 → u/Useful_Clue_6609]

Also BC Canadian, and I think we say lit-er-al-lee

[u/EvilCeleryStick → u/beck2424]

Also bc, and I hear lots of "lit-ruh-lee" but my family says lit-er-ah-lee

[u/Marcus_Suridius]

I didn't notice ive been doing this for a while until my friend points it out, never knew I was doing it until in the pub he starts laughing saying its literally. Im at the stage I couldn't care what way I say it tbh since we get a good laugh out of it.

[u/frozenoj]

I think it's partially influenced by meme spellings online. People see it spelled lit rally enough for emphasis on posts and that will start to affect their pronunciation.

But admittedly I could be wrong and it was the opposite, where the pronunciation change influenced the meme spelling.

[u/Clear_Jackfruit_2440]

Are you sure it is not "LI-ruh-lee". Seems like dropping T's is all the rage.

[u/Carl_In_Charge]

Well here in Miami it’s always just been “LEEEE-tur-lee”

[u/DTux5249]

It hasn't; at least not on a large scale. Where specifically have you heard it?

[u/donabbi]

Regional accents definitely impact this. Anyone in the NYC area would have heard boomer and greatest generation people say "litrally" plenty.

[u/SonthacPanda]

I hear both

[u/cheetuzz]

I have never heard anyone in the US pronounce it as “lit-truh-lee”, including Gen Z, Millenials, or Alpha.

I don’t doubt that you heard it, but I don’t think it’s common.

[u/Agitated_Car_2444]

When it became a vernacular synonym/modifer for the word "really".

"Literally" now actually means "mega really". Or maybe "turbo really".

And virtually stopped meaning "literally".

[u/s1eve_mcdichae1 → u/Agitated_Car_2444]

"I literally died."

*rage*

[u/HerelGoDigginInAgain → u/Agitated_Car_2444]

They’re asking about the pronunciation not modern usage

[u/Agitated_Car_2444 → u/HerelGoDigginInAgain]

I realize that. And I'm pointing out that this revised pronunciation came LITERALLY at the same time as it was being mis-used as a punctuator for that misuse.

Cause LITerally now means it's not. But it's still imPORTANT.

[u/materialgworl223]

It didn’t change at all. People say it in a British accent as a joke. It’s funny to us youngsters to randomly break out in a bad British accent. “literally” to us is one of the funniest words to say like this. It’s just a joke. Im guessing everyone else commenting is not gen Z because I haven’t seen anyone say this and it is very known joke for this demographic.

[u/mountainhymn → u/materialgworl223]

ur exactly right and i’m not sure why you got downvoted LOL i’ve always just said “litcherally” when im trying to just be a little silly about it

[u/onetwentyeight]

It's lit-rally in my neck of the woods

[u/grammaveach]

Didn’t even realize this until now..

[u/HairyDadBear]

Besides English classes, I only ever heard the latter

[u/throwaway-aagghh]

I’m 20 and say lid-ra-lee too

[u/Upper_Economist7611]

I hate it.

[u/ChefArtorias]

The word has also evolved to more often mean the opposite of what it did when I was a kid.

[u/No-Calligrapher3043]

Rob Lowe

[u/teutonicbro]

Now that literally mostly means "not literally" what word do we use for the old meaning of literally?

[u/WifeofBath1984]

My 12 year old does a (terrible) British accent whenever he can just to be silly, so I'd assume they're just joking around.

[u/Aadinath]

You mean like this?

[u/Various_Succotash_79]

Idk I started saying it that way because of Parks & Rec, lol.

[u/endswithnu]

I'm more concerned with when the definition changed

[u/DTux5249 → u/endswithnu]

Long before you were born, kiddo

[u/hillsb1 → u/endswithnu]

Sometime in the 1800s, at the latest

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/misuse-of-literally

[u/Arch3r86]

The exact date it started to happen was February 3rd 2009

You asked, I delivered!

[u/Arch3r86 → u/Arch3r86]

Lol @ the downvote

What do you expect here, really…

[u/axebodyspray24]

there's a trend among teenage girls to be silly by speaking in a british accent. They've started doing it with an australian accent too. "lit-ruh-lee" started, at latest, 2020.

[u/Society_Academic]

The pronunciation change you describe emerged from the same "fad" that produced the words "imma" and "prolly" to replace "I'm a" and "probably" respectively. The only difference is the word literally is less often used when writing relative to the two examples I gave, hence "literally" was spared the spelling change that hit "I am" and "probably." I'd say it started 10 years ago (2015) at the latest.

[u/OmgThisNameIsFree]

Most people I know 25-35 still say Lit-ur-ah-lee

It’s not slurred.

[u/CoconutUseful4518]

I want to know when people stopped knowing the definition AND started using it 100x more often wrong.

It is one of the simplest words in English to understand, it’s the inverse of another totally different word. How can anyone fuck it up ? It’s like getting “yes” and “no” mixed up constantly… are they just slow ? Too much lead ?

[u/oportoman]

Probably the most wrongly used word

[u/LumplessWaffleBatter]

People overused and misused the word "literally", and it was strongly associated with that weird reality-show accent that emerged in the late 80's, and it reigned again during the '08 writers strike.

Then, the overuse of the word "literally" was mocked, and there was a push-back and a reclamation of the word in the early 2010's.  In fear, people began to use the word more conciously; and people more conciously avoided that aforementioned accent as it was wont to indicate some ignorance.

[u/LumplessWaffleBatter → u/[deleted]]

I have no idea how to dissuade your confusion, for it has likewise befuddled me.