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Before I moved to the South I (a non-Southerner) did not feel comfortable saying "y'all". But "you guys" seemed sexist. I have since spent a decade in the Sou
by madcaptenor 6mo ago
Before I moved to the South I (a non-Southerner) did not feel comfortable saying "y'all". But "you guys" seemed sexist. I have since spent a decade in the South and I have not picked up much of the dialect, but I definitely say "y'all" now.
"W'all" would be nice to have. I guess it's not a thing because it sounds too much like the things that separate rooms.
- saltcured 6mo agoHave you yet progressed to y'all being singular and all y'all being plural?
- madcaptenor 6mo agoNo. As far as I can tell, singular "y'all", when it exists, is an implied plural. What you might hear as singular "y'all" is, say, when you go into a restaurant and say "do y'all have Coke?" to the server - that doesn't refer to just the server but to the restaurant as a whole. But I'm not a linguist and also I don't spend much time among people with heavier Southern dialect, so you shouldn't believe what I say.
- pessimizer 6mo agoNo, you've got it right. A lot of people trying to be cute and make southern language seem more alien than it is are over-"correcting." When southern people say y'all to one person, they're really addressing you and your family (even though you might be the only one there.) If I ask "how y'all doing?" I want to know how you and yours are doing.
- macintux 6mo ago> If I ask "how y'all doing?" I want to know how you and yours are doing. I just want people to stop asking me how I'm doing if they don't care. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that "How's it going" is a greeting, not an interrogative, and I want that change undone forever.
- saltcured 6mo agoWhat's interesting is you may reply, "hey, how are you?", and lots of people may be satisfied with that. Neither party actually answers how they are, yet the handshake is complete.
- FarmerPotato 6mo agoDon't forget to end the conversation with "God be with ye". Or "A Dios".
- saltcured 6mo agoI've had it explained to me as a western/eastern divide among southerners. As you head through Texas, more people think you need "all y'all" for plurals. That's something those western southerners told me. I don't know if a linguist would agree, but that seems to be the understanding of some actual language users... All I know is that there is a second boundary somewhere through TX, NM, and AZ, because I've never met a native Californian who would say "y'all" non ironically.
- lamasery 6mo ago"Guys" (without a "the" in front of it) is uncontroversially gender-neutral in most contexts in at least some parts of the US. I'm not sure whether folks worried about it are from places where it's definitely not, or places where it's not used much at all so they're not aware that it's a non-issue in (at least many) places where it is. I do prefer "y'all", though. I think it's the best one we've got, of the options ("yous" being another big one, and ew, gross) I also love the nuance of "y'all" and "all y'all".
- chadd 6mo agoi tried to stop using y'all when i got my first job at MSFT, having grown up in the South; then 10 years later I realized it's perfect for Corporate America given it's gender neutral
- madcaptenor 6mo agomeanwhile, my New Jersey-born boss uses "you guys" despite herself being female and having lived in the South longer than I have
- kevin_thibedeau 6mo agoI grew up saying it and consciously eradicated it around 3rd grade. I probably shouldnt've but it would seem forced to do it now.