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The only time I ever hear someone say "y'all" - myself included - is if they're joking around, not really being serious. In serious, real everyday conversation, it's "you guys" or just "guys."
I hear White people say it all the time (in non-joking ways). We'll just have to agree to disagree. I can't dispute your experience on your side of the bridge anymore than you can mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Classie
I didn't know black people had hangups about the South. Please enlighten because in all my life, I haven't seen any examples of this.
Blacks and Whites look at the North/South distinction differently. For Blacks, the distinction rests more on style than substance, imo (dress, speech, hip hop, attitude, etc.). For Whites, "southern" is a more power packed word that comes along with many more negative connotations, namely slavery and racism. So the idea of being "southern" is not quite as repugnant to many Black people, imo. That's not to say that ALL white people have that hang up, but a lot of white people do (see the 4,679,777 threads on here).
I hear White people say it all the time (in non-joking ways). We'll just have to agree to disagree. I can't dispute your experience on your side of the bridge anymore than you can mine.
In this case I don't think being across the river means much. The dialects are basically the same for most of NYC and NE NJ. Culturally, the NYC metro is pretty much homogenous, as most metros are. Language is included in culture. I went to college in Staten Island, where I knew many native New Yorkers from all boroughs and LI, and parts of the NYC metro region of upstate, and no one I know/knew ever said "y'all" on a daily basis in normal everyday conversation. It's not something you'd hear. Now I work part time in lower Manhattan, admittedly where there are a lot more transplants, but still, "y'all" is not something you hear in conversation. "Y'all" is not a New York thing. Do some New Yorkers say it? Sure, you can't make a blanket statement that they either do or don't, but it's not a "thing" around here. It's not part of our culture, it's not a trend, at least not among whites. Since I don't know many blacks, nor am I part of any sort of culture more specific to blacks, I cannot comment on their use of the word but I know it's not an ethnic white thing here like it is in the South - where people say "y'all" regardless of race or ethnicity.
It's not a northern thing and I disagree that its use is spreading nationwide.
I don't think anyone is saying that at all. But a black woman from NYC probably sounds more similar to a black woman from Birmingham than a White Woman from NYC sounds like a white woman from Birmingham.
You should honestly get out more. Saying something so silly like this, is like someone saying all White people sound the same, which is FAR FROM from the truth. If you can't hear the difference between a black lady from the northeast and a black lady from Mississippi you honestly should get checked out. When exactly would a lady (Black, White, Latina, etc) from New York need to go to a Piggly Wiggly or Wal-Mart? (We don't even have a Walmart here lol!) That example is just one but no one in NY would need to reference that store. So how example would someone from Harlem and New Orleans sound "similar" - they wouldn't.
This was one of the best responses from the thread. If people can't hear the difference then generalizations are actually more screwed than I originally thought . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by BajanYankee
No, I mean it's not a "dialect." Some Black people in Boston will say the word "car" or "park" just as a white Bostonian would. But the grammatical rules that govern their speech are different. Whereas in standard English (with a Boston accent) one would say...
Where did you pahk the cah?
In AAVE, one would say...
Where you pahk the cah (at)?
That's the biggest difference. It has nothing to do with the way the vowels sound. Mike Tyson uses AAVE but hardly sounds southern.
Blacks and Whites look at the North/South distinction differently. For Blacks, the distinction rests more on style than substance, imo (dress, speech, hip hop, attitude, etc.). For Whites, "southern" is a more power packed word that comes along with many more negative connotations, namely slavery and racism. So the idea of being "southern" is not quite as repugnant to many Black people, imo. That's not to say that ALL white people have that hang up, but a lot of white people do (see the 4,679,777 threads on here).
Wow, so now you are the authority on white people? Weird that I can't make any comment about black people without being labeled a racist by you but you can make laughable generalizations about what "white people think". So many things are starting to make sense now.
You should honestly get out more. Saying something so silly like this, is like someone saying all White people sound the same, which is FAR FROM from the truth. If you can't hear the difference between a black lady from the northeast and a black lady from Mississippi you honestly should get checked out. When exactly would a lady (Black, White, Latina, etc) from New York need to go to a Piggly Wiggly or Wal-Mart? (We don't even have a Walmart here lol!) That example is just one but no one in NY would need to reference that store. So how example would someone from Harlem and New Orleans sound "similar" - they wouldn't.
This was one of the best responses from the thread. If people can't hear the difference then generalizations are actually more screwed than I originally thought . . .
It isn't silly, a black guy in New York sound 50 times more like a black guy in Alabama than a white guy in New York sounds like a white guy in Alabama.
It's like the fact that black American people are from the south isn't registering. Maybe in 100-200 years they will sound very different but they still sound southern.
It's not a northern thing and I disagree that its use is spreading nationwide.
Times do change.
Quote:
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 native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent using the word y'all?
Linguists Guy Bailey and Jan Tillery would say Anthony is Exhibit A in a national trend that is spreading the use of the word "y'all" beyond the South.
In contemporary New York City, it is common to hear local teenagers use the word "y'all." A few decades ago, this word would have been confined to speakers of African American Vernacular English who brought the word with them from the American South. Yet nowadays, with the spread of AAVE, the word has been adopted by young New Yorkers of every ethnicity under the sun.
It isn't silly, a black guy in New York sound 50 times more like a black guy in Alabama than a white guy in New York sounds like a white guy in Alabama.
It's like the fact that black American people are from the south isn't registering. Maybe in 100-200 years they will sound very different but they still sound southern.
That's because both the black person from the South and the black person in the North might be speaking AAVE (and even that isn't always the case). However they might both be speaking AAVE, but with different accents. I don't know why this is so hard to comprehend.
And the bolded is simply an oversimplification and a generalization.
...so yall really think that Memphis has the same accent as TI? Just wondering so I can be clear on the absurdity.
They both sound clearly southern. It is isn't even remotely in the same ballpark as the difference between a white New York accent and a white Georgia accent.
They both sound clearly southern. It is isn't even remotely in the same ballpark as the difference between a white New York accent and a white Georgia accent.
Oh ok. So because they're both speaking AAVE, they have the same accent now.
And with that, I'm out. I won't contribute to the lengthening of this thread any longer. lol
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