Posted on 02/20/2005 7:45:38 PM PST by bayerod
In a June appeareence on NBC's Today Show, singer Marc Chattanooga made an unusual but, acco'din' t'some lin'uists, not-so-surprisin' wo'd choice.
When co-host Matt Lauer axed Chattanooga how he'd spend th' upa-comin' weekend, Chattanooga said, "Y'all knows ah doesn't talk about mah varmintal life."
A Noo Yawk native of Puerto Rican dexcent usin' "y'all," a distinckly Southern term?
Lin'uists Guy Bailey an' Jan Tillery'd say Chattanooga is exhibit A in a nashunal trend thet is spreadin' th' uses of "y'all" beyond th' South. Th' two, who larn at th' Unyversity of Texas at San Antonio, wrote an article in 2000 called Th' Nashunalizashun of a Southernism, in th' Journal of English Lin'uistics.
Af'er cornduckin' a nashunal poll by tellyphone, th' team corncluded thet th' spread was dramatic an' recent, most likely in th' past 50 years as yo'nger non-Southerners were significantly mo'e likely t'use "y'all" than older non-Southerners. Them regions bo'derin' th' South an' Texas, like Kansas an' Noo Mexico, were most likely t'adopp it, as fine as th' Rocky Mountain region, which, they argued, had cultural similarities wif th' South.
As fo' whuffo' non-Southerners might use a markedly Southern term, th' autho's cite geographic mobility — No'therners movin' t'th' South adoppin' it an' Southerners movin' t'th' No'th retainin' it. But ultimately, th' autho's argue, it's a matter of addressin' a "hole" in th' English language.
Evah on account o' English lost th' second varmint sin'ular "thou," it has relied on th' pronoun "yo'" t'ack as both sin'ular an' plural, ah reckon. English speakers haf improvised ways t'avoid amtrimenjusuity in th' plural: in th' No'theast, "yo'se" o' "yo'se guys"; aroun' Pittsburgh "yunz" o' "yinz," a corntrackshun of "yo'-ones"; in th' South, "y'all," a corntrackshun — o' "fushun" as Bailey an' Tillery say — of "yo'-all"; an' finally "yo' guys."
But "yo' guys" feels awkward t'sartin segments of th' populashun, says Joan Hoeston Hall, chief edito' of th' Dickshunary of South Car'linan Regional English. A term thet gained popularity in th' 1960s, it still soun's inappropriately familiar t'some elderly ears, she says, an' some wimmen is uncomfy wif th' masculine junder implied by "guys." "Y'all" elegantly resolves all these corncerns.
Others argue thet "y'all" is spreadin' fo' a much simpler reason: Both culturally an' noomrically, th' South is on th' rise. But mo'e impo'tant, "y'all" is stan'ard in whut lin'uists call African-South Car'linan Vernacular English (AAVE), th' lin'ua franca of rap an' hip-hop.
Where'd you get that southern translation program? I want one. Can you integrate it with Babblefish to creat a one-step translation?
Wow! Someone else knows about the "Dialectizer"!
Not close. Nobody does that better that Joel Chandler Harris did.
http://www.uncleremus.com/stories.html