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In Defense of Y'All

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Re: In Defense of Y'All

#371

Post by mock-possum »

dingnuts wrote: post #163
_yb2s wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the west coast or northeast it would be very surprising to hear someone say it.

an aggressively progressive set of new yorkers practically bullied me into using it a decade ago over concerns of sexism so at least when talking about people in those places in tech I can't say I share your experience. lots of coastal progressives say y'all nowadays. it's "inclusive" I also hear people say "folks" when that is also borrowed from Southern US English I say y'all because it has one less syllable than t…

Yeah in the PNW, I commonly hear the progressive/inclusive “y’all,” the AAVE “y’all,” and the southern transplant “y’all” - but personally I never use it unless doing it satirically.

I wasn’t raised to say it, and unfortunately I’ve got this lingering association with southern racist / ignorant hillbillies usage the term. “Y’all better get along now y’hear?” So it always feels weird coming out of my mouth.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#372

Post by yunwal »

cpburns2009 wrote: post #230
parpfish wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”).

I don't think people outside the midwest understand just how ubiquitous "you guys" is here. After a previous time this discussion occurred on HN, I had to chuckle to myself when I heard my sister address a group of little girls as "you guys". It's our version of "y'all".

You guys is the default on the East Coast too. It wasn't until very recently that people started being concerned about it being a gendered term.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#373

Post by HelloMcFly »

extra88 wrote: post #365
reaperman wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Texan...that person's assertion makes no sense. I have never heard anyone else ever claim that y'all should be used as a singular pronoun.

Do you mean you wouldn't only use y'all for singular? I assume you would say "how y'all doing" to one person or multiple people.

I've spent a lot of time in the US South (Georgia and Tennessee) and cannot say I heard people every using "y'all" in the singular.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#374

Post by TRiG_Ireland »

richardfontana wrote: post #140
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…

I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone use "youse guys", but "youse" without "guys" is indeed a now-archaic New Yorkism. However, it doesn't have any particular connection to Italian-American New York other than the fact that "youse" was a native New York dialect formulation that US-born children of Italian immigrants, along with many other ethnic groups, adopted naturally. I understand that "youse" is prevalent in a nu…

Being in the midlands of Ireland, I say ye; but I believe that yous is more of a think in Dublin and the north.

(In practise, I write ye more than I say it, I think.)

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#375

Post by saghm »

_yb2s wrote: post #107
mystified5016 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This whole thread is extremely confusing to this Appalachian native. Y'all is used quite widely throughout the entire southeast. It's recognized, if not used, through the entire country. I've also seen its use increasing in the Midwest as it seeps out of the south. Do many people actually see this as a novel word? It's incredibly common from my perspective here in Ohio.

On the west coast or northeast it would be very surprising to hear someone say it.

I've lived in the northeast my whole life, and I don't remember ever being surprised at the idea of someone saying it. That's at least partially because I'm just used to the idea of people I interact with potentially not being from the northeast though. Even at a young age in the suburb I grew up in (with around 25k population, so not a particularly huge one), it was pretty common to encounter people who came from other states or countries. I guess if you're from a town small enough you might not be as used to interacting with people from other places, but is that really a regional thing or just a small town thing?

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#376

Post by eszed »

treetalker wrote: post #123
greenavocado wrote: post #56

Y'all is the American informal second-person plural pronoun Spanish: "ustedes" (formal) and "vosotros" (informal in Spain) or "vos" in some regions French: "vous" is the standard, but informally there's "vous autres" in Quebec French Portuguese: "vocês" formally, but "cês" informally in Brazilian Portuguese German: While "ihr" is standard, some dialects use "ihr alle" or regional variants Italian: "voi" is standard,…

In both the Midwest and the South, I often hear "you guys'" (pronounced "you guyses"). I'm enjoying you guyses thread.

Isn't that a possessive form? As in:

Waiter: "Can I get you guys's orders?"

Non-standard (as written: "you guys' "), but speakers notoriously add extraneous " 's"s.

(Sidenote: when we were teenagers my sister and I referred to one pastor as "the polytheist", because he always said "in Jesus's name", which we chose to interpret as "in Jesuses' name". God, I'm a nerd.)

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#377

Post by HelloMcFly »

troyvit wrote: post #370
prepend wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Ya’ll” is the spelling used by carpetbagger poseurs.

Wow. Way to pick a hill.

It's not worth a fight, but I can confirm I've only seen "ya'll" written by non-southern or Appalachian residents. I'm not saying it doesn't happen or shouldn't happen, but it would make me wonder about whether someone has adopted the word as a choice vs. it being just a word in their normal vocabulary.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#378

Post by skrebbel »

alistairSH wrote: post #130
skrebbel wrote: post #110

As a non-native English speaker, I love "y'all" because it lets me directly translate our word for, well, "y'all" to English. I seriously struggle to formulate sentences such that it's clear from context that I mean "plural you" in this here case. So what happens is, I start saying a sentence that has "you" in it, and at the "y" I notice that it'll be unclear, I quickly bend it to "y'all", and the day is saved! Hoora…

Hooray for Texas! "Y'all" didn't originate in Texas. Or, rather, nobody's really sure where it started, but it definitely isn't unique to Texas and more likely came from the Deep South.

Hey, I'm a foreigner, the nuances of American history and regional culture are lost on me. If y'all can call my country "Holland" even though that's like calling the US "Carolina", then I can refer to the entire American South by "Texas".

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#379

Post by skrebbel »

wepple wrote: post #124
skrebbel wrote: post #110

As a non-native English speaker, I love "y'all" because it lets me directly translate our word for, well, "y'all" to English. I seriously struggle to formulate sentences such that it's clear from context that I mean "plural you" in this here case. So what happens is, I start saying a sentence that has "you" in it, and at the "y" I notice that it'll be unclear, I quickly bend it to "y'all", and the day is saved! Hoora…

What’s your word for it?

jullie

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#380

Post by prepend »

troyvit wrote: post #370
prepend wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Ya’ll” is the spelling used by carpetbagger poseurs.

Wow. Way to pick a hill.

It’s funny to think I’m picking a hill, just by pointing out an observation. It seems like hyperbole to say my comment was picking a hill to die on.
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