I've noticed over the last 4 or 5 years, that more and more people are prefacing replies to questions with the word "So", whereas traditionally, it's always been "Well".
This was really brought home to me recently when we had a talk at work from someone, and in the Q & A afterwards she used "So" to preface every reply to a question - but conversely, when I listened to an online recording of a similar briefing from the same individual in 2013, she prefaced every reply with "well" or some other word. So it's clearly a deliberate change.
Anybody got any theories as to where this has suddenly sprung up from, and why? Also, what do you use?
I tend to use "well" as it's what I was brought up with. I do use "so", but as a starter to a topic, rather than a reply to a question, as in "So anyway, I did my shopping this morning, and then had a nice dinner".
Maybe many haven't even noticed this, but as someone who is interested in the nuances of language, it's definitely caught my ear, since it started more widely in about 2015.
I might start using "well so" as a reply to questions, as a sop to linguistic diversity - see if anybody comments on it !