Y’all oughtta distinguish “y’all” from “all y’all”.
Uh, it’s “all y’alls”.
I thought that’s the plural genitive.
While I won’t disagree, is a discussion about “y’all” really the place for a phrase like “plural genitive”? ;)
Southern US English is a language, and is therefore a proper subject for linguistics, so … yes?
I thought the distinction was clear:
- y’all - singular
- all y’all - plural
That’s not right:
- you - singular
- y’all - plural
- all y’all - superplural
Y’all refers to multiple people, all y’all refers to multiple groups of people
My understanding:
- you: the person I’m talking to
- y’all: the group of folks I’m talking to
- all y’all: y’all, plus anyone else that could possibly be addressed by me (everyone in voice range)
(Agreeing and using different words to say the what I think is the same thing)
I feel like y’all covers up to ~3 and “all y’all” (my favourite Americanism) is reserved for more than that?
As a born and raised southerner, y’all can be used for one person or many, with no clear limit on the number. All y’all is used to stress a point or to make it clear that it references everyone capable of hearing the message or just anyone who could be intended. All y’all is mainly used, in real world applications, in the sentence “all y’all can go fuck y’allself” or similar.
It’s actually a contraction from old English or Scots and has been around since 1631. The hicks are using socialist words that aren’t theirs.
*ain’t theirs
You uncultured swine. Ain’t is a contraction of am not. Am only goes with I. I ain’t going to accept illiteracy.
Y’all, it ain’t theirs
(The South had a significant surge of Scottish immigrants)
(They’re a fuckin “liberal” monarchy.)
Did you just assume my nongender?
It’s the internet. I assume everyone, until it being proven otherwise, is either a sentient amorphous blob or a bot.
Or a three letter agency.
Hey! My blob is quite morphous; thank you very much.
I started using y’all years ago due to its ungenderedness, in part from being in queer spaces. Walking into a room of trans women and enbies and saying “you guys” felt weird.
Being enby, you guys feels weird when I’m included in it.
Being female, yes.
But I do delight in the awkwardness when they’re called on it and try to backtrack and blush all the way down to their male genitalia.
Why? Guys is genderless imo and used that way all the time in life, this is such a weird take.
It’s also a good substitute for “you guys”
Or in New Jersey, “youse guys”
“Guys” is an ungendered word. Has been since the 80’s (and likely well before): https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19074/what-is-a-feminine-version-of-guys
People who are into pronouns and all that crap really need to do more research.
I guarantee you that when most people think of a “guy”, they aren’t thinking of a woman. This is the same argument as “mailman is gender-neutral”.
I banged 10 guys last night
The same night my mom died, so did my pride and that small clock near the door.
What’s your point flipping words?
Folks enters the chat
It’s literally a non gendered replacement for a gendered term. Texas is woke confirmed.
It’s a contraction of “you” and “all.” It was never a gendered phrase to start with.
Y’all was created to serve a completely artificial problem.
English has second person singular pronouns, but for some dumbfuck reason we’ve deprecated them. It’s still maintained in the standard for compatibility with legacy literature but not recommended for new works. If thou talk’st this way, thy speech comes off as archaic/shakesperian/biblical. So we use the second person plural for everything. But this removes the ability to encode context on how many thou art addressing. “You! Go put that fire out.” Are you talking to an individual in a group or the whole group?
So the American south turned “you” into the singular form and invented “you all” contracted to “y’all” for the plural form.
Now we just need to fix the first person plural problem, ie “We’ve just won the lottery!” Does “we” include the listener, or not? English doesn’t encode that information; “we” don’t have different words for “myself the speaker and the listener(s) and perhaps others” and “Myself the speaker, others, but not the listener.”
M’y’all and m’y’ain’t
Ah, compound contractions. Yeah that’ll work. We’ve already got y’all’ve and y’all’d’a.
Can’t forget about y’all’dnt’ve.
y’all’dn’t’ve forgotten an apostrophe if y’all’d de-contactify it: “you all would not have”
Get’r’donen’t
Y’all was created to serve a completely artificial problem.
I don’t think it is likely that “y’all” was created by people who knew what grammar is, much less for the purpose of solving a problem with the English language.
Doesn’t matter if it was done intentionally or not.
Now that I think about it a little, I agree.
The first person plural of we is we’uns.
heard many you-uns growing up around the south.
If y’all spent as much time and energy on useless pronouns as y’all spent on advocating for universal healthcare, y’all could have gotten that last doctor visit paid for by y’alls gob’ment and not having to dip into y’alls savings.
Y’all need to check your priorities.
Problem here is the thread is focusing on a Texas y’all but then you throw a gob’ment in which is much more Georgia southern and it ruins the whole vibe right at the end. The voice in my head broke accent.
Tbh, I’ve heard more y’alls in the San Francisco Bay Area than in Texas (I’ve live din both). Granted I lived in an immigrant-heavy place in Texas that I didn’t even live in for that long.
What about you’uns?
If you want, but I’m woke y’all
Or yous
y’all is second person plural. First and Second person aren’t gendered. Therefore, I is also woke
OMG yes! We must make this a thing, make the right speak in caveman to fit their troglodyte nature! Lol
“All Y’alls” is based though.
“Y’all” is plural “you” (at this point).
“All y’all” is an enhancer and clarification meaning, “every one addressed.”
It is, also, based (and fun).
Y’all’dn’t’ve is just next level stuff.
Please explain the last one I do not grok
Yall would not have; negative form of y’all’d’ve.
'd = would n’t = not 've = have
If y’all’dn’t’ve upvoted this thread, I might not have seen it.
Also: cool to see the word grok.
I refuse to accept Texas’ claim on y’all. Its a word collectively owned by everyone south of the mason-dixon line and I will fight to the death over this.
Signed, floridaman
…Am I not allowed to use “y’all”, north of the 49th parallel? Do we have to bring back “thou” so “you” can be plural again? Or is this part of the Quebecois plot to force everyone to parler en français donc nous pouvons utiliser “vous”? C’est bien, anyway, j’suppose.
Fun fact:
“Thou” and “you” were the same word.
The “th” sound used to have its own character in written English called the thorn. When typefaces came along, it was excluded and sometimes replaced with a “y.”
Also why “Ye” and “The” are the same.
Take it from the south; it will kill them inside.
I hear it all the time. I use it sometimes
-just south of the 49*
It’s not that it can’t be used elsewhere. We just don’t want Texas to take all the credit.
Is it bad that I’m more bothered by “j’suppose” than the inclusion of “anyway”?
C’est un trait quebecois, je pense… les cowboys fringants la dit (“anyway”), donc je ne sais, c’est probablement ok… J’ai entendu “j’suppose” avant aussi, vraiment, je pense…? Est-ce que ça n’est pas comme “I’spose” en anglais? Reverso a beaucoup des examples pour “j’suppose”, quand même. (Je ne suis pas quebecois ou francophone, si tu ne peut pas voir pour quelque raison; je suis un idiot anglophone.)
“I’spose” est facile. “J’suppose” est dur à dire, parce qu’on ne peut pas dire “j’s” comme “i’s”.
J’ai dû sortir mon français rouillé. Merci pour la pratique. Et oui, j’ai utilisé Google.
Well, I’m doing my best to import it into the New Zealand vernacular, we are South of the 49th.
So, uh, I dunno.
As someone who grew up in North Carolina, I agree. Texas might be the first thing some people think of when it comes to “southern” states, but it doesn’t get exclusive claim to the quirks of the whole region
I have never thought of Texas as southern (yes, I know they’re the south-most state). Western movies were in Texas, so Texas is western (don’t judge my very clearly faulty logic). South Carolina is south for sure. Georgia. Mississippi and Alabama are no brainers. But Texas? That’s where western cowboys live… sorry… cowyalls.
So long as we can still claim “Y’all’d’nt’ve”
It’s our greatest contribution to the lexicon and extremely efficient.
You can’t, that’s Appalachian territory.
Everyone gets y’all. It fills the dumb gap in English where the plural of you is you. Now if we could only get a singular neutral 3rd for people that isn’t also the plural.
E: Or we could start pronouncing They singular like latchkey, for a thee sound. So we can get fun words like they’s (thees). It will also make English even more confusing for newbies. What’s not to love?
If the plural of goose is geese, then the plural of moose is meese.
I approve of this message, are y’all with me?
It’s also second person plural (or singular), second person is always ungendered.
First and second person, plural and singular are never gendered: I, you, we, you / y’all / all y’all. The only pronouns that are gendered are the third person singular: he / she / it. Third person plural (they) is also ungendered.
Yall need to chill
Y’all need to put yuh dicks away.
Was this post designed to offend all non Texan southerners
Idk but if so, mission accomplished I guess
Oh! Oh! Lemmy try! Lemmy try!
Ahem.
“Beans do not belong in chili.”
Ya’ll better watch out now y’hear? We don take kindly to that kind’a hate speech ‘round these parts. Equal weight beans and beef, you skimp out either and yain’t fixin’ chili; you might’ina even be inclined to leave for everyone’s sake.
kind’a
I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before. “Kinda” does not mean “kind of.” “Kind of” is not the proper way to write “kinda.” They aren’t interchangeable.
Kind’a is a contraction and specifically means kind of. Brilliant.
Bless your heart 😒😒
Where in the world do you not put beans in chili? That’s literally the point of chili. Is this an American thing I’m too European to understand?
I’ve also heard them say tomatoes shouldn’t be added to chilli as well
literally just taco meat and peppers ig
in Texas
Chili involves 2 things: Chilis and beef. Much in the idea of molé sauce, you can get a lot of complexity from chili powder alone.
The only actual fact here.
If you’re trying to piss someone off, you would say “Beans belong in chili.”
People who think it’s ok to put beans in chili don’t really care what you put in chili. You’re not going to upset them.
On the other hand, people who believe that beans don’t belong in chili…
I’m southern with family from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas and chili is all about the beans. I call chili with chiles, beans and tomatoes “Chili” and if I make it with beans, chiles, tomatoes and meat (stew meat never hamburger) “Meat Chili”. Would take chili with beans & corn over chili without beans any day of the week.
Chili with hamburger without beans is something to put on a hot dog or bun. Not a meal, it’s like hamburger helper nonsense.
Bless your heart
Thems fightin words.
Darn tootin
