In Québec the vast majority of the population says "là" at the end of every second or third spoken sentence.
Là means "there". Unless you're telling somebody a place to put something, there is absolutely no reason why the word would be used at all; yet its use is pervasive.
Can a whole society have a verbal tic?
(or whatever we finally decide to call it...)
Yes of course they can, eh?
Canadians, New Zealanders and people from north Queensland (an Australian state) all append the word 'eh' (or 'ay' if you like - rhymes with 'day') to the end of most sentences. Most Australians don't do this, however, many do end sentences with a rising inflection similar to a question. Both phenomena seem to be saying "you do agree with what I'm saying, don't you?" and perhpas indicate some degree of cultural cringe.
I can't think of a word to desribe the phenomenon this thread is about - I was going to offer "annoying" a few minutes after the original post but decided against it (great minds think alike etaoin?). However, the word for someone's own personal eccentric way of speaking would be an 'ideolect.'
