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Well, in the first few posts of my flist this morning I noticed two non-Southerners who'd used "Y'all." And I've begun to hear it outside the south, too. So I wonder: if you're not a Southerner, have you started using that very useful word to plug the hole in English where a second-person plural ought to be? and do you hear others who've adopted it although they didn't grow up with it?
(note: I'm a Southerner and a sometime-linguist, and glad to see my native language spread, but just wonder if it's my overly-sensitive ear that hears this word gradually becoming a less regional term.)
Any other formerly regional expressions that are now becoming wide-spread?
I'm pretty sure "Y'all" hasn't made it to Great Britain or Australia or New Zealand, and doubtful of Canada, but who knows?
(note: I'm a Southerner and a sometime-linguist, and glad to see my native language spread, but just wonder if it's my overly-sensitive ear that hears this word gradually becoming a less regional term.)
Any other formerly regional expressions that are now becoming wide-spread?
I'm pretty sure "Y'all" hasn't made it to Great Britain or Australia or New Zealand, and doubtful of Canada, but who knows?
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Interesting that the word has spread online though. Perhaps because we pick up each other's quirks of "speech" almost meme-like?
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But I use it typily. All the time.
(I'm actually a pretty good verbal chameleon, so I'd very likely start using y'all aloud if I knew any Southerners other than online.)
(I've picked up "good-o" from a Kiwi friend. I'm not sure if that's a New Zealand thing, though, or just her.)
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Y'all - well, it's useful and efficient. Yes, it does seem to plug a "second-person plural" hole - an informal one, as I said. In addition, I find it preferable to another term that was favored in Pennsylvania, my old stompin' grounds: "youse". That particular work makes me grind me teeth in pain.
It doesn't surprise me that you are hearing more non-Southerners use it; have you ever gone to another part of the country and found yourself picking up the regional accent? I do it all the time; I don't know why but it may be related to the fact that, when singing, I always end up on the same note as the person next to me. All about the harmony, that's me! LOL
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I was kind of surprised to see rara avis (great name, btw!) say "youse" was used (yoused?) in Pennsylvania--I always associated it w/NYC.
As for other regional expressions that are spreading...hmm. Well, "wicked" as an intensifier used to be a (South?) Boston thing, & it caught on more widely for a while. There's another one tugging at the edge of my mind--if it emerges, I'll let you know.
Y'know what else English needs? Separate forms for inclusive vs. exclusive "we." Does it include the person being spoken/written to or not? Nominations, anyone? I've heard of "we'uns," but I'm not sure if that's one or the other. Or both, just like "we." What do y'all think?
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Actually I do hear "we all" down here, but not as a contraction. And not quite sure it always has an inclusive connotation, may in fact be exclusive (all of us vs. you).
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Um...I used to know that. Well, I knew some languages had separate forms of "we" for inclusive & exclusive. I'm not sure I knew which ones. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_we) on it that names several groups of languages.
"I know Old English used to have a word for 'the two of us' as opposed to 'the great big bunch of us.' But I don't think that's quite the same."
You're right, it's not. And then there are some languages that have a dual form for nouns, separate from the regular plural. Hebrew has it only for certain words--mostly things that occur in pairs, like yadayim (hands), but also for units of time, where it's sort of the equivalent of "a couple of," like sh'vu`ayim (a couple of weeks).
In a diff't. post, replying to LadyStarlight, you say, "Now that's interesting--usually people use more informal language in speech." I'm not sure this applies to things like LJ, blogs, BBSs, or even email, at least outside the business/academic context. A lot of writing on the Internet is very informal, & this seems to be a separate question from grammar & spelling, in the sense that even people who know, say, where to put commas deliberately use casual language.
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Yes, indeed. And there are certainly lots of slang terms and other stylistic things that people use only online. Online language is probably really a register or maybe even a dialect all its own! As I got more responses, I began to think that there must be many people who use "y'all" as one of those internet things. I'd expected that using the term in writing was coming out of spoken language, but appears not to be, at least totally. Well, not about to do real research on it, but someone could.
And then there are some languages that have a dual form for nouns, separate from the regular plural. I believe Arabic is one of these--and since it's fairly closely related to Hebrew, that's not surprising.
Thanks for the link--will check it now.
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Ouch, good pun. And yes, "youse" is fairly common in southeastern rural PA among families who have lived there for a number of generations, including descendants of the Pennsylvania German (otherwise known as Pennsylvania Dutch). I used to hear it in NYC and Long Island and northern NJ, but not in the Finger Lakes area of NY, which is where I grew up. Regional "tics" are fascinating, aren't they?
And thank you for the compliment on my name (I recently renames my LJ). I'm glad you like it. ;-)
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But so far, and maybe because this is LJ, most people say they write it more than they say it. Maybe they encounter southerners only here on LJ--especially true probably for the Canadians.
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For me, we came to the conclusion, it was more about the casual and friendly tone it set.
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But what you say makes me think of something else. Mostly a Southern accent is seen as a sign of ignorance--or at least that's the feeling you get (as I did recently when a whole yoga class laughed when I said "My feet keep sliding off the wall" which I'm sure they heard as "Mah feet keep slahdin' awf the wa-awll." I know it was the accent because the teacher instead of responding to the problem said, "Where are you from?") So it's interesting that that one word, "y'all", sounds friendly rather than dumb.
Or maybe we're just paranoid down here!
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With the rise of the so-called "New South," the perception of Southerner = ignorant was changing. Bush and the Neo-Cons have set that back. My experience has been that I get prejudices about the South attributed to me even though I don't have them. I'm sorry if that has been people's experience with us Yankees. Assuming I think a certain way is no different than assuming you do. This has played out most in terms of Southern Republicans.
Not to mention, most accents make me totally melt. When Angelus refered to his in regards to Fred, I had very naughty thoughts. Very very naughty ones.
My own embarrassment, which I've worked hard to correct, is I spell like I talk. Never realized I actually had an accent until I noticed these errors. My husband makes the same mistakes because he has the same accent. Because of this, on another board, some people accused me of making him up for various reasons.
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I hadn't noticed that in your writing. Maybe it works fine for me! How would you describe your own accent? Are you a Maryland native?
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From age 8, I lived in Maryland just outside of DC. I don't speak with a Southern or Western Maryland accent, nor do I speak with a DC one. I lived close to the Beltway. It is such a cosmopolitan area (I hung out with lots of Diplomats' kids growing up), that any accent is moderate or at least very confusing. I think I sound like the majority of your Television anchors, fairly neutral with just a smidgen of flavoring.
But when I'm in an area, I tend to develop that accent. My New England one is coming along wicked good. When I visited my Grandparents in NC (who are still thought of as the dumb yanks), I came back with a beautiful Southern drawl. In college, my best friend and my roommate both spent the year in England and had a British accent. People thought I was in the same program since I too developed the accent.
I'm just too easily influenced
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We have the ever handy youse. Which I think comes from Ireland.
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Neat article on Strine! Thanks.
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I'd never use "y'all" during a professional pitch, a formal letter, a speech to a large group, or with strangers I'm trying to impress with my ideas (as opposed to my personality).
But I do use it when I want to come off as fun, comfortable in the setting, and to imply a closeness and casualness between myself and whomever I'm talking with.
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