Y'all or You Guys (television, female, people)

[rcp11889]

It is very true that anyone outside the South looks condescendingly on Southerners who say y'all. Every time I meet someone from outside the South they laugh at me when I say y'all. They tell me how that is not correct English blah blah blah. The point is that sure both can be correct, but us Southerners are just plain tired of the rest of the country thinking we are stupid and uneducated for using ONE word that we were just raised to say. It's the continuing "Northern" (for lack of a better word) hegemony. It's just like how people think that because so many Northerners are flocking to the South that we automatically are losing are culture and accents. Or like how so many people refuse to believe that Washington, D.C. is a Southern city (or even Atlanta for that matter).

[imtheonlyamy]

Originally Posted by rcp11889

It is very true that anyone outside the South looks condescendingly on Southerners who say y'all. Every time I meet someone from outside the South they laugh at me when I say y'all. They tell me how that is not correct English blah blah blah. The point is that sure both can be correct, but us Southerners are just plain tired of the rest of the country thinking we are stupid and uneducated for using ONE word that we were just raised to say. It's the continuing "Northern" (for lack of a better word) hegemony. It's just like how people think that because so many Northerners are flocking to the South that we automatically are losing are culture and accents. Or like how so many people refuse to believe that Washington, D.C. is a Southern city (or even Atlanta for that matter).

I had a little of the same experience when I moved south many years ago and would say "you guys".
I notice that nowadays I occasionally hear "y'all" used in non-southern states as well as "you guys" in the south. We really are a big old melting pot!

[Smtchll]

^agreed, but I think "you guys" is definitely catching on faster in the South than "yall" is in the North. "You guys" is seen as more standard, so more people are using it

[TexasReb]

Maybe I didn't explain/word it very well last night, so let me try again. And no personal animosity intended, even if it may have come across that way...

Originally Posted by ABQalex

I don't get any of this. Aren't you one of the ones who champion the notion that Texas and Oklahoma are not part of the modern-day Southwest but rather the South? (Or rather, the "South Central" United States, as that poster and also you now have described it).

Absolutely correct, and it appears now I must have misread what you were saying. The way it came across to me was you were disputing such. But ok, let's just chalk that one up to a mis-understanding, agreed? Given that misunderstanding, what I was clarifying, in fact, was that Texas and Oklahoma are Southwestern in a different sense as are New Mexico and Arizona (Western South or South central for the former and southern West for the latter). You didn't say originally where you were from, so I didn't know. My mistake and apology on that particular point.

So I guess in order to make some sort of 'point' that "you guys" isn't all that common in the "Southwest" you're now wiling to lump them back into a region with Arizona and New Mexico??

See above. Like I say, I misunderstood your application and rationale.

But all that is immaterial to what I was getting at in replying to that poster who replied to me. My point was that where I live "you guys" in referring to females is common usage and widely understood. And that we're not calling females males since we understand (and the dictionary agrees) that "guys" can refer to females as well.

I don't know where it has been disagreed that "you guys" is not acceptable as fine to use if one wants to use it...or is saying one if literally referring to females as males. The whole issue -- as to the thread topic -- as far as I am concerned is not that nor with, per se, those who use it. Rather, with those definite sect of northerners who ridicule we Southerners for "y"all" being improper...yet seemingly never examine all the implications of their own idiom.

I really have no idea why you use posts I make in order to advance this whole North-South rivalry/fight that you seem to have going in your mind and are playing out in this thread. Again, I am not a Northerner.

Again, see above. Seems like this is an invention in your mind as to an assignment of regional animosities.

And besides, I haven't said anything in this thread about the usage of "y'all" and whether or not it's correct or indicitave of one's level of intelligence to use it.

Who said you did? But clearly, others have. And if you don't see it, then you haven't looked very hard. They are the ones I have the issue with.

The whole reason I've posted much at all in this thread is to counteract the notion that the use of "you guys" when referring to females is wrong in any way. It's not.

In terms of gender, it actually does contain a contradiction.

Of course -- and I have said so repeatedly -- it is not wrong at all as idiom. It is well-entrenched in American usage in most parts of the country. Hell, my own kids -- who mostly grew up in the North after their mother and I divorced -- use it (although when they visit down here they seem to naturally gravitate back to "y'all...which, being born in Texas and growing up here in the formative years, is their "cradle language." ).

Regardless though, I can't emphasize enough I have no personal problem in the least with "you guys" (except if my grandkids adopt it..BWHAHAHA). But seriously, I can honestly say I would have never gotten so testy about it at all if it had not been for that some yankees presuming to ridicule Southerners as coming across as "white trash" or "ignorant" or "redneck" or "backwards" for using "y'all" as the generic term for another group of people. If you really want to focus on hostitlity and regional animosities? THEY are the bunch that should be examined, wouldn't you say?

I think what many of us are pointing out -- in response to a lot of disdain and provocation -- is that many of that ilk need to closer examine their own arguments and reasoning.

I hope that clarifies things, somewhat!

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Smtchll

^agreed, but I think "you guys" is definitely catching on faster in the South than "yall" is in the North. "You guys" is seen as more standard, so more people are using it

This is probably very true. A lot of it -- IMHO -- has to do with the influence of mass-media and Hollywood TV and movies.

[southernnaturelover]

Everytime I hear "you guys" in a nasally northern accent I think of Steve Urkel, "Aww, you guuuys" (or maybe Chunk from The Goonies) LOL. It just sounds geeky/nerdy to me.

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Everytime I hear "you guys" in a nasally northern accent I think of Steve Urkel, "Aww, you guuuys" (or maybe Chunk from The Goonies) LOL. It just sounds geeky/nerdy to me.

And every time I hear "y'all," I think of Gomer Pyle.


Surprise Surprise Surprise - YouTube

[Bunjee]

"Y'all" is catching on everywhere. I still don't use it, but it's a great second person plural. I say "you all." It could elide into "y'all" but I'm careful not to let it. Does that still count?

[MiamiRob]

Shouldn't it be "you all" instead of "you guys'? "Y'all" is a contraction of the words "you all" which I assume a lot of Southerners / rednecks use.

[Bizurko]

I remember growing up it was definitely not uncommon to hear my mother say " All a y'all". Instead of all of you so there was a double all. Now that takes it to a whole new level.