In Defense of Y'All

Post by scarmig » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

stavros wrote: post #208

scarmig wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In early modern English, thou and thee were both the informal 2pp, with thou being the subject pronoun and thee being the object pronoun. Thou/you is similar to tu/vous. Eventually, thou became archaic, and we think of archaic words as being more formal. (Aside: In Middle English, ye was strictly plural, but ye became acceptable as formal singular as well, again paralleling vous. And as an additional aside, in the "y…

Yep, exactly!

Post by Beermotor » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 3:42 PM UTC

ssimpson wrote: post #189

Y'all is Texas' gift to inclusivity. When I joined a dev team that wasn't just guys, I worked hard to get away from saying "you guys", not because someone said I needed to, but because I felt that I needed to. Y'all worked because I came from Texas and its inclusive of everyone on the team. It has been my personal policy to use that in leu of "you guys" in all situations since then.

Post by zer8k » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 3:43 PM UTC

parpfish wrote: post #148

gregw2 wrote: post #11

I tease non-Texans that Texan English is actually superior to normal American English because it supports second-person plural via "Y'all" exactly as mentioned in this article... "you guys" is, to some ears, sexist, and "youse guys" (a New York-ism) is a little too old-school Italian. English lost its second person plural when we switched from Thou (second person singular formal + Thee=second person singular informal…

As a native midwesterner, I get more annoyed and defensive than I should when people complain that “you guys” isnt gender neutral. Where I come from, everyone is “a guy”. It can mean “male person”, but that’s only if you use it in specific contexts that brings up gender (like saying “guys and gals”).

Post by yCombLinks » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 3:43 PM UTC

fat_cantor wrote: post #209

yCombLinks wrote: post #153

Y'all gives way to my favorite word, Y'all'd've (You all would have). It it fun to say and wraps up so many grammatical concepts into a neat package. Example usage "It's too bad Y'all didn't come to the party, Y'all'd've had fun"

Never heard anyone pronounce the v in that one, it's always Y'all'd'a, as distinguished from y'all'odda (you all ought to). Similarly we have y'ontu? (do you want to?). Jeff Foxworthy has a bunch of these examples

Post by zer8k » Thu, Dec 19, 2024, 3:44 PM UTC

giraffe_lady wrote: post #177

Ajedi32 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The context of dating makes it no longer gender neutral. ("Guys and gals") But I've definitely heard people refer to groups composed entirely of women as "you guys".

I've still never heard, for example "this guy" when referring to eg a specific female coworker. I live in the midwest. "You guys" is frequently used as a genderless plural sure I guess but "guy" is not gender neutral.