Y'all's sprawl. Linguists study the spread of a Southern term

Houston Chronicle/Columbia News Service ^ | Feb. 19, 2005 | MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF

[bayourod]

In a June appearance on NBC's Today Show, singer Marc Anthony made an unusual but, according to some linguists, not-so-surprising word choice.

When co-host Matt Lauer asked Anthony how he'd spend the upcoming weekend, Anthony said, "Y'all know I don't talk about my personal life."

A New York native of Puerto Rican descent using "y'all," a distinctly Southern term?

Linguists Guy Bailey and Jan Tillery would say Anthony is exhibit A in a national trend that is spreading the uses of "y'all" beyond the South. The two, who teach at the University of Texas at San Antonio, wrote an article in 2000 called The Nationalization of a Southernism, in the Journal of English Linguistics.

After conducting a national poll by telephone, the team concluded that the spread was dramatic and recent, most likely in the past 50 years as younger non-Southerners were significantly more likely to use "y'all" than older non-Southerners. Those regions bordering the South and Texas, like Kansas and New Mexico, were most likely to adopt it, as well as the Rocky Mountain region, which, they argued, had cultural similarities with the South.

As for why non-Southerners might use a markedly Southern term, the authors cite geographic mobility — Northerners moving to the South adopting it and Southerners moving to the North retaining it. But ultimately, the authors argue, it's a matter of addressing a "hole" in the English language.

Ever since English lost the second person singular "thou," it has relied on the pronoun "you" to act as both singular and plural. English speakers have improvised ways to avoid ambiguity in the plural: in the Northeast, "youse" or "youse guys"; around Pittsburgh "yunz" or "yinz," a contraction of "you-ones"; in the South, "y'all," a contraction — or "fusion" as Bailey and Tillery say — of "you-all"; and finally "you guys."

But "you guys" feels awkward to certain segments of the population, says Joan Houston Hall, chief editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. A term that gained popularity in the 1960s, it still sounds inappropriately familiar to some elderly ears, she says, and some women are uncomfortable with the masculine gender implied by "guys." "Y'all" elegantly resolves all these concerns.

Others argue that "y'all" is spreading for a much simpler reason: Both culturally and numerically, the South is on the rise. But more important, "y'all" is standard in what linguists call African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), the lingua franca of rap and hip-hop.

[moonpie57]

i'm using an ipaq stylus/keyboard combo w/ block recognizer, and typing mamenem takes to long...how do i upgrade my ipaq dictionary to recognize Southern blocks?

The newest version is due out April 1st. :)

[4CJ]

We don't need no steenkeen apostrophe! Not much is worse than hearing some northerner saying yall - almost as bad as the accent in Cold Mountain.

[Tailback]

I started using Y'all about the third day in the Army. It's contagious when there's so many southerners that join the military. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out.

[annyokie]

That's "manaiz" in these parts.

[w_over_w]

almost as bad as the accent in Cold Mountain.

LOL! Worse than listening to crap music (or noise).

[Blue Collar Christian]

When I was 8 years old my family moved to Trona,CA(near Death Valley)from Garden Grove, CA(Orange County in the greater Los Angleles area). Up to that point my English was a result of my Altoona, PA born mother with English as her major for her college degree and my Worchester, MA born "pahk the cahr in the yahd" dad.

Well, the folks in Trona were mostly from Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas with thick southern accents. It sounded almost like a foreign language to me at first but, yes, it rubbed off. Then while in the Army, most of my buddies were from the South as well.

These days, living in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, some people ask me what part of the South am I from. I tell them "Southern California".

[SAJ]

Definitely LMAO, Rod!

Y'all gonna stop wit' dese comments, rat? (g!)

[stainlessbanner]

The poor actress in that movie slipped in and out of her accent. I lost interest in Cold Mountain and started counting how many times she switched.

Another movie I just caught was Pharoh's Army (Kristofferson) - very sad, but a more accurate tale of Yanks stealing chickens off a southern farm. Based on a true story. Captures the sadness of the war.

[stainlessbanner]

The poor actress in that movie slipped in and out of her accent. I lost interest in Cold Mountain and started counting how many times she switched.

Another movie I just caught was Pharoh's Army (Kristofferson) - very sad, but a more accurate tale of Yanks stealing chickens off a southern farm. Based on a true story. Captures the sadness of the war.

[SAJ]

Changin' your screen name to 'BayouBorg', are ya?

Just for the alliteration, of course...

:^)

[teldon30]

My wife is filipino...she has a southern accent on top of a filipino accent ;)

[teldon30]

I'm glad someone agrees with me about the wretched accents in Cold Mountain...it was laughable!

[TheBrotherhood]

"I'm" is the correct written form, while ya'll is incorrect. Ya'll is an idiolectic/dialectical form of "you all."

[TheMole]

It should be mandatory for linguistic researchers to survey the 50 states and make a map such as the famed Pop Vs. Soda map. http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

Such a map could definitively show the extent of Southron penetration. I grew up in Canada, where "pop" was not only invariably the generic term for sweet fizzy soft drinks, but was the only term known to exist for them. I found the use of "soda" and "coke" baffling at first. Even many years of U.S. experience later, the Pop Vs. Soda map explained a lot -- like that western New York State is actually culturally part of the Midwest, as is in a sense most of English-speaking Canada. These guys should have to produce a "Y'all" map if they want any more grants.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Bookmarked. Thankya kindly.

[chasio649]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/823956/posts

[yooper]

"This Michigan native says Y'all."

Bet you're from the lower SOUTHERN peninsula;)

Up here in the UP we say, "Hey! You Assclowns!"

You betcha.

[Graybeard58]

"I'm" is the correct written form, while ya'll is incorrect. Ya'll is an idiolectic/dialectical form of "you all."

Contract you all correctly and you get y'all

Not the ya'll you are using.

[4CJ]

;O)

I can stomach almost anything except cRAP music. IMHO it ain't music. Note to Hollyweird - if the part calls for a Southern accent - hire a Southerner. A speech coach can't do the accent justice, and a Southern ear can spot a fake easily - about as noticable as Ted 'The Swimmer' Kennedy on helium.

[4CJ]

I wasn't about to aid them financially on the movie, so I waited till it was on the tube, but when I saw it on the dish the weekend I had to turn it off after only 30 minutes. Either that or shoot the TV. Australian Southern accent? I don't think so.