Posted on 02/20/2005 7:45:38 PM PST by 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.
'Night!
"you guys" is now the exclusive province of highschool girls and solicitous waiters-----as in "how are you guys doin'?.....can I get you guys anything else?" , My wife and I CONGRATULATE a waiter or waitress who DOESN'T use this sloppy overfamiliar locution. And yes, as someone pointed out "youse" is like the Northern equivalent of "y'all". But it smacks of someone even lower on the educational scale, or whatever it is that determines how well one speaks----sometimes education has nothing to do with it. When my daughter was in 1st Grade, the PRINCIPAL of her grade school addressed an audience of parents with "I wanna thank alla youse for coming out this evening"....my wife and I looked at each other and then we looked at Sherry Rooney , the only other parent who noticed it, and said "BOING!!!!!."
Don't forget R-o-C coke-cola
to wash down the moon pie.
LOL!
We needed to a study to come up with this?
It has to do with the spread of ebonics among several ethnic groups in the north. White people in New York say "Ant" for Aunt. Latinos say "awnt" largely because they have a tendency to ape black speech.
My favorite is still down in New Orleans" "Where Yat?"
oooooh. that is WAAAAAY wrong. Like ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog.
I hear you...
loud and clear.
Leave Mr.Annyokie alone. He's right!
How's this:
Mayonnaise (Newallins style) :" Can you pop the top on this can for me hawt; I just got mayonnaise done."
He's perfect. Other than the ketchup thing. ; )
This is pathetic, they were saying the SAME THING when the Dukes of Hazzard were on TV.
Somebody is PAYING someone to study this?!?!
LOL Shoot fire.
Ya'll are a Yankee, ain't ya?
Not close. Nobody does that better that Joel Chandler Harris did.
http://www.uncleremus.com/stories.html
Sigh...actually, it is the difference between a hissy or a conniption fit. LOL
Yeah! Conniption... that's what I was trying to remember hehehe.
tan·trum ( P ) Pronunciation Key (tntrm)
n.
A fit of bad temper.Also called regionally hissy2, hissy fit.
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