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Originally Posted by catman
"Y'all" is a perfectly good colloquialism, IMO. I wouldn't use it in a term paper or anything formal, but there isn't anything wrong with using it in everyday conversation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scubashawn68
I think Catman might actually get it. Like I have been saying all along, there's nothing wrong with saying the word. It is still not proper English, which means you wouldn't use it in a term paper. Right ?
I too agree with Catman, which by extension means you and I might actually agree somewhat. However, unless I overlooked it, I can't find where you qualified it as you say (that is, fine in conversation but not in formal writing). If you had of, I would have acknowleged your point on some level.
Lonestar2007 said essentially the same thing:
Quote:
I don't mind saying y'all, but when I put it in writing, it seems like I'm trying to be overly southern or something. I don't know quite how to explain it. I'm certainly no southern belle, nor am I a hick from the sticks, yet when I write something with y'all this and y'all that, I think it makes me look like such.
My minor is in journalism and I have had published a few articles over the years in various and sundry rags and mags. And written my share of term papers and thesis'. While I might use "y'all" in a post or informal letter, no, I would not use it (except for a specific and relevant purpose related to the topic itself) in formal writing.
Point being, yes, it IS a colloquilism, but that does not necessarily make it "improper" English, which was my point. All depends on context. Perhaps I wasn't very clear in turn. And at least we agree there is nothing improper in the least about using it in conversation.
EDIT: In looking back over the thread, yes, later on, there were some places you qualified. In the beginning however -- and for quite a while afterwards (which was what I was going by) -- you made no distinction between formal written and spoken useage!
Can we agree that it is a Southern expression and not proper English ?
Ps....I lived in the South for a little while and most of the Southerns there that I met do not even consider Texas the South.
Are regional words or terms taught in school ? No would be the answer to that.
I don't suppose that y'all was taught to me in school. But every one of my native Texas teachers used it while teaching us. In my community, we had a corporation that transferred a number of people in from Boston and New York as the plant and offices were being built in the 50's. Many of the wives of the men transferred were teachers. My 9th grade science teacher, from Boston, was horrified that we said y'all. The others, as my ancient memory recalls, picked it up and used it. (I don't think any of them picked up "fixin' to").
I think Catman might actually get it. Like I have been saying all along, there's nothing wrong with saying the word. It is still not proper English, which means you wouldn't use it in a term paper. Right ?
And my apologies to Texaswannabe if I miss understood you.
Actually, "y'all" has migrated from Southern areas into places that did not already have regionalisms in place, though it is a traditonally Southern expression.
Very true SUB, according to linguistic research. Here is a link and excerpt:
The sprawl of y'all — JSCMS (http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-02-15/velasquezmanoff-yall - broken link)
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,” which appeared 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 25 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.
On a related and somewhat more "light" and "humorous" tangent, I think that one of the things that non-Southerners (at least those new to the state/region) have a bit of a hard time grasping at first is the "proper" usage of "y'all."
That is to say, some will inadvertently use y'all to address one person in greeting. With that said though, I gotta defend many of the same though in that it isn't entirely their fault. One has to live here a while to absorb it. Part of the "mystique" of "y'all" is wrapped up in Texas/Southern vernacular whereby the use of the word can take on extreme nuances and meaning. And intent. This is part of the reason we are such good story tellers! )
As a general rule though, to ask a person, "how y'all doing today?" is not right IF one is directly addresing that person only. On the other hand, to ask "How y'all been doing?" is perfectly acceptable and correct if the obvious intent is to inquire about their family, mutual aquaintances, etc.
Gosh Y'all...I sure do love "y'all. Just like I do "yonder" and "fixin' to."
Honestly, I had no intentions of posting again on this particular thread, but here I go again! C'mon y'all, admit it, this is funny as all get out, or as some would say, quite amusing. LOL, just think if we were all kids again and someone told us to read these posts we would be rolling in the floor. Of course we had so many better things to do back then, such as getting together with our friends and planning our day. A typical summertime day would go as follows: A friend would come over on their bike, then I'd get on my bike and off we'd go. Sometimes there would just be the two of us, other times, we'd go recruit more friends and then it was like, "ok, what do y'all want to do"? Sometimes we'd go to the one's house who had the tetherball, then on to the house with the badminton or croquet ball sets or down to a vacant lot to play baseball. As a rule though, we usually started our adventures with, "y'all want to go see if we can find any coke bottles"? Then someone might say, "I saw where someone had thrown out a bunch of them down yonder by the bottom of the hill". So, off we'd go. After a bit, usually one of our mothers would find us and ask what we were up to. We'd tell her we'd been collecting coke bottles and was fixin' to go to the store to sell them. She'd say, "OK, but remember to be home by lunch time now, you hear? Then we'd be off to the store to sell our cache of empty coke bottles and buy penny candy (actually, most of it was 3 for a penny, or 2 for a penny) which they put into a tiny little brown paper sack, a comic book and a coke. Ah, the life of Riley.
Sometimes after lunch, we'd get some twine and raw bacon and head down to the creek to catch crawdaids. We had several of the old #3 washtubs and we'd put the real big ones in one tub and call them the granmas and granpas. Then we had a tub for the mommas and daddys and the third tub held all the kids.
Mother would come out and ask, "where did y'all get all those crawdaids"? We'd tell her, "we got them down yonder out of the creek, close by Roy's house". Then she'd ask, "What are y'all going to do with them"? We'd tell her we were fixin' to go turn the kids and babies loose and if we cleaned the other ones, would she please fry 'em up for us. Like I said, these were the good old days!
Honestly, I had no intentions of posting again on this particular thread, but here I go again! C'mon y'all, admit it, this is funny as all get out, or as some would say, quite amusing. LOL, just think if we were all kids again and someone told us to read these posts we would be rolling in the floor. Of course we had so many better things to do back then, such as getting together with our friends and planning our day. A typical summertime day would go as follows: A friend would come over on their bike, then I'd get on my bike and off we'd go. Sometimes there would just be the two of us, other times, we'd go recruit more friends and then it was like, "ok, what do y'all want to do"? Sometimes we'd go to the one's house who had the tetherball, then on to the house with the badminton or croquet ball sets or down to a vacant lot to play baseball. As a rule though, we usually started our adventures with, "y'all want to go see if we can find any coke bottles"? Then someone might say, "I saw where someone had thrown out a bunch of them down yonder by the bottom of the hill". So, off we'd go. After a bit, usually one of our mothers would find us and ask what we were up to. We'd tell her we'd been collecting coke bottles and was fixin' to go to the store to sell them. She'd say, "OK, but remember to be home by lunch time now, you hear? Then we'd be off to the store to sell our cache of empty coke bottles and buy penny candy (actually, most of it was 3 for a penny, or 2 for a penny) which they put into a tiny little brown paper sack, a comic book and a coke. Ah, the life of Riley.
Sometimes after lunch, we'd get some twine and raw bacon and head down to the creek to catch crawdaids. We had several of the old #3 washtubs and we'd put the real big ones in one tub and call them the granmas and granpas. Then we had a tub for the mommas and daddys and the third tub held all the kids.
Mother would come out and ask, "where did y'all get all those crawdaids"? We'd tell her, "we got them down yonder out of the creek, close by Roy's house". Then she'd ask, "What are y'all going to do with them"? We'd tell her we were fixin' to go turn the kids and babies loose and if we cleaned the other ones, would she please fry 'em up for us. Like I said, these were the good old days!
ABSOLUTE STANDING OVATION, Miss LoneStar!
I just wish I could have said it so well, so good, my own self!! (psssst...ONLY thing I would quibble with a teeny-tiny bit is that back in "our" day, we called the noon-time meal "dinner" rather than "lunch"!
You are right as rainbows and sweet spring-time rain though, hon. The notion that there would even be a debate over this general topic would be as imcomprehensible as would be whether or not fast-food joints need banned by federal mandate.
*reflecting in amusement* In fact, I kinda wonder -- because this is the type thing people like me wonder about -- what my own grannys and gramps would have/would think, if something like this had actually come up in their day. That is, to ask, to name just the one, "is it ok to use "y'all"?
Chances are, my granmaws would have -- being the good Southern Baptists they were -- said something like "well, son...Lord forgive us when we doubt."
My paw-paws would probably have said, "Boy? What sorta grab-assin' question is THAT"?
I just wish I could have said it so well, so good, my own self!! (psssst...ONLY thing I would quibble with a teeny-tiny bit is that back in "our" day, we called the noon-time meal "dinner" rather than "lunch"!
You are right as rainbows and sweet spring-time rain though, hon. The notion that there would even be a debate over this general topic would be as imcomprehensible as would be whether or not fast-food joints need banned by federal mandate.
*reflecting in amusement* In fact, I kinda wonder -- because this is the type thing people like me wonder about -- what my own grannys and gramps would have/would think, if something like this had actually come up in their day. That is, to ask, to name just the one, "is it ok to use "y'all"?
Chances are, my granmaws would have -- being the good Southern Baptists they were -- said something like "well, son...Lord forgive us when we doubt."
My paw-paws would probably have said, "Boy? What sorta grab-assin' question is THAT"?
Thanks Reb! I can almost hear your paw-paws now, LOL. As to the lunch/dinner...well now shoot...you've got me soooo confused!!! Let's see, I know it was always called Sunday dinner (the noon time meal after church) and later that evening it was supper. Now, it's get confusing, the noon time meal was called both dinner and sometimes lunch. I've gotten to where I say lunch all the time now, maybe it has to do with my kids saying lunch because that's what they said at school. The evening meal was supper, but it was also called dinner at times. LOL, drive you crazy! I know Thanksgiving dinner was just that, dinner, no matter if it was at 12:00 noon or later in the day, or even closer to suppertime if things had gone haywire! Ah, you gotta love our lingo. One thing about it, we all know what we're talking about, even if no one else does! Like my Daddy use to say regarding the lunch vs. dinner, I don't care what you call it, as long as you call me when it's ready!
Location: Pittsburgh--Home of the 6 time Super Bowl Champions!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryS80
LOL, yeah that word makes me cringe, and I use Y'all
Now how about a nice Iron City Beer?
Are you a Pittsburgh girl?!?!
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However, unless I overlooked it, I can't find where you qualified it as you say (that is, fine in conversation but not in formal writing). If you had of, I would have acknowleged your point on some level. 
