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Has "y'all" become a word in common use outside Southern American English?
I hope so. It's the only logical way to say "you" in a plural form in our language. "You guys" is what people say where I'm from, but "y'all" makes more sense. It's a contraction of "you all," and should be considered acceptable everywhere, in my opinion. Hopefully it will be someday.
i did some audio on it. i'll post it in a few. i didn't get the pronunciation right for ppl in areas "without accents" but IMO i was spot on for the NE and the SE pronunciation of the word ya'll. its hard for me to pronounce things like yahll, dahg, frahg, etc.. how its pronounced there.
northerners and westerners are picking up on it. i go to school in jersey but am a born and raised nth generation Texan. At first my friends thought it was kinda funny, now they all say it without even noticing. it is just that much easier and is either more natural, or will quickly become more natural as you start using it.
now the mark of a true southerner is someone who can get away with saying all-y'all. my friends from outside of the south LOOOOVE this. e.g.- "hawr all-y'all doin?"
Y'all is definitely pronounced differently in the South. I say it once in a while, and I was actually teased one time because I didn't say it "like a Southerner would". The "yowl" sound eek was referring to is similar to the way words like ball, call, doll, etc. are used among many people down here.
don't think so, I was just hanging with some Indian guys in Florida, they said for about a year, they thought everybody was talking about u hauls. It wasn't until he asked somebody "Why are you people always talking about uhauls?" that he found out what they were saying.
I have traveled throughout the U.S. and have never failed to hear someone use the contraction y'all at least once...this includes NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Boston, etc. I also heard it used a few times in London as well...it's a very convenient way to refer to a group of people and has definitely become commonly used across the U.S. and in some places outside of it.
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I also heard it used a few times in London as well...it's a very convenient way to refer to a group of people and has definitely become commonly used across the U.S. and in some places outside of it.
