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.
At least you didn't zot her.
And how could I forget 'bless your heart'
mayonnaise: "Mayonnaise a lot of people here."
aorta: "Aorta cut that grass pretty soon."
initiate: "My wife ate a hamburger initiate two bags of chips."
--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.--
Maybe had to do with all them Texans who migrated to Colorado?
Usually on the side wall next to the china closet, just adjacent to the sideboard.
They're talking about you...
As a Southern lady, I don't feel comfortable with "you guys". A guy is a guy...no way that could refer to me or to other females. I always wondered why people used that term. Y'all is either gender and sooooo easy to say!
If you don't say "Y'all" what do you say?
Maybe a troll claiming to be the third cousin of the inventor of ya'll will show up too! LOL
The South will rise. . . Yo!
-- mayonnaise: "Mayonnaise a lot of people here."--
This doesn't work if you pronounce it in the New Orleans way:
May yo naiz...
The correct expression is "you all." Ya'll is vulgar vernacular.
It is a contraction. How is it any more "vulgar" than your use of "I'm" in your first sentence?
Nor do I.
"You guys" ain't no way to address y'all!
All y'alls are belong to us.
"You muthaf***as."
Hey, northerners -
All y'all's base are belong to us.
[grin]
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