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.
didja bring yer truck widjadidja?
I say all ya'll when refering to a group of ya'll. My auntie still say's you'uns and we'uns. That and them young'uns. ; )
All y'all want to be like us
That's OK as long as you continue to maintain the distinction in your mind. It's not what you say that counts, it's what you do.
"everyone"
"people"
"folks"
"you guys"
My stepsons raised between Utah and Washington State, tease me a lot about y'all (born and raised in the South, I will never be a you guys type of person, and you all is just too awkward), but every now and then I hear the youngest saying it...and when he catches himself doing it, he feels horrified!
I've said y'all since I was a kid in Colorado and I dont remember ever being around any southerners who used the term.
Y'all need to get a room!
LOL!
Now what's with the "lipstick on a pig analogy"? I'm hearing it everywhere.
I don't mind if non-Southerners say "y'all" as long as they spell it correctly (it's "y'all," not "ya'all" or "ya'll") and don't apply it to the singular. Too many Yankees trying to act Southern or put on a phony Southern accent think that y'all = you, singular, in Southern-speak. That's just stupid.
"I'm a native New Yorker and I've been saying "ya'll" since I was a kid. Not exactly in a country accent though."
I lived in NY for 35 years and until recently, and I've never heard the expression ya'll.
The correct expression is "you all." Ya'll is vulgar vernacular.
--and I remember the bi-gender usage of "you guys" originating the year I was a freshman in high school--'53---
Yo'uns.
"dolor de cabeza!"
Which end is the cabenza?
That's just the Wlat brigade stinking up the thread. They will be here soon to tell us how ya'll is connected to slavocracy and anyone who speaks Southern is evil!!
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