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sprtsluvr8 - I think you are right. While my locale seems to be holding out. I'm hearing it in more and more places and from more and more people one wouldn't necessarily deem 'southern'. I wonder if someday we'll succumb as well.
It is a very easy habit to pick up, I once found myself for an extended stay in Texas and by the end of my time there, let you a few 'y'all's (and of course was mocked mercilessly for that, and for my accent in general, in a good natured way of course)
I wasn't saying that y'all is used more often because I wouldn't have any idea about that...I still hear it a lot everywhere I go. I was saying that it's more widely used than in the past, probably due to the advent of air travel and people just traveling more in general...and regional transplants, both coming to the south and leaving the south for other areas. Whatever the reasons, it's used all over the place...it's just easier and shorter to say.
I say 'you guys' all the time. I suppose I am lacking in couth, but I am not overly concerned about it.
Having spent some years on Long Island, I am also well acquainted with 'youse' and 'youse guys.'
Where I live now, it's all about 'y'all' or 'all y'alls' and I am quite comfortable hearing it (and typing it!). However, it would be something of a joke if I said it, because my flat California/midwest accent would never do it justice.
Did your great-great grandfather fight in the Civil War? Other male relatives? Was your family burned out of their home during the war? Starve? Lose most of their possessions? Their livelihood? Even if they never owned a slave? Do you dig up minnie balls when you dig a hole for a shrub? Do you live less than an hour away from a major battlefield? Do people call you "redneck" and literally step away from you when you speak a few words? We are still acutely aware of the war because it took more than 130 years to recover from it. I suggest you go back and study U.S. history a bit more.
My Southern brother, I have attempted time and again to convey the true history to folks, here and elsewhere. Sadly, 140+ years of "civil religion" of state worship and the deification of Abraham Lincoln has led to the public miseducation with regard to the War for Southern Independence. I stand with you, realizing all too well what my ancestors went through during the puritan quest for empire.
One day when I have more time, I'll start my own thread to mass educate our northern cousins about the real history.
Deo Vindice!
I say 'you guys' all the time too and have never been told that I'm particularly tacky, but who knows, perhaps they are just being polite . But I have found that I'm hearing 'y'all' more and more, probably due to travel and relocation becoming more common.
Oh and cil, I've heard more 'youse's than I can shake a stick , I just heard a couple yesterday (working with loads of 'guys' from Chicago's south side probably explains why that might be
However, I really like our regional differences, I hope there is never a day where they die out.
I was born in Atlanta and lived there until graduation from Emory University. After that I lived many years in Houston and now I live in Huntsville AL. I mention this to emphasize the point that I am Southern to the core. That being said, any true Southerner KNOWS that "y'all" is the plural form of "you". Any butchering of Southern dialect such as "all y'all" is probably perpetuated by someone who moved to the south at a later point in life and is trying to pick up a southern accent (or possibly make fun of it!).
This thread seems to have gone on a while but nobody seems to be able to definite exactly what a Redneck is.
Most folks seem to content themselves by saying they have seen a Redneck or they have a few in a particular state.
I doubt true Rednecks are confined to the southern regions. I do know there are plenty in Ohio. Usually driving pickups, sometimes with dogs in the back, they do like chewing tobacco, seem to be missing at least one good tooth, having a way of shifting the eyes when talking, they tend to say Yeahhhh with a tone with a certain shake of the head, more than Yah-all. Do seem to like hunt'n, never sure if they intend to pay you for anything. Usually have lots of relatives.
So maybe it is like with snakes. You know the really nasty ones when you see them but maybe can't explain why.
Some of the Southern boys described as Rednecks might be just Good Olde Boys, lots of them in places like Texas.
Could be Hollywood and the movies, they usually never get many of the characters right. Like would you call the folks in the movie "Cool Hand Luke" Rednecks???? Naw, I don't think so, them is just southern boys doing what southern boys do.
...and back to the subject of the thread. Anyone who has been to rural New Hampshire as I have, knows that rednecks are not confined to the south. I've met plenty of rednecks with New England accents and Red Sox bumper stickers on their pick-up trucks
...and don't even get me started on the upper-midwest. hehe.
and scratching themselves in places no one should ever see
This thread seems to have gone on a while but nobody seems to be able to definite exactly what a Redneck is.
.
Okay, y'all, here goes..... A redneck is someone who has not used sunscreen before going outside into the sunlight and, therefore, has a large (or small) red sunburned area at the edge of his (or her) collar area, that will more likely than not, will result in freckles, age spots, senile keratoses, (worse ones now) basal or squamous cell carcinoma, or, G-d forbid, melanoma. Found everywhere and not related to sex. OK, youse guys
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. But I have found that I'm hearing 'y'all' more and more, probably due to travel and relocation becoming more common.
So what exactly is a Redneck????
