Next

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?