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Old 08-05-2020, 04:36 PM
 
35,510 posts, read 17,715,580 times
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Hi everyone. I'm helping a writer friend reading through a book she's writing before submitting it for publication.

It's set in small town West Virginia, current times. The town had a history of coal mining.

She's got two characters who say "y'all".

Does that sound right?
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Old 08-05-2020, 08:14 PM
 
35,510 posts, read 17,715,580 times
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Never mind, I ended up googling it. Apparently you can google, "do West Virginians say y'all" and get an answer.

Sounds like the answer is yes.
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Old 08-06-2020, 02:50 PM
 
110 posts, read 220,371 times
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Must admit I have never heard "y'all". Everyone I know, including me, says "you all".

But you mentioned something that really bothers me, someone who knows nothing about WV writing a book set in WV.
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Old 08-06-2020, 05:41 PM
 
Location: Alexandria, VA
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NEVER heard it until I moved from Pa. (close to the WV line) - until I moved to Va. and haven't heard it for years.
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Old 08-06-2020, 11:41 PM
 
537 posts, read 955,243 times
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I say "y'all" all the time, always have. Grew up in Prince George's County MD. *shrug*
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Old 08-07-2020, 09:37 AM
 
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I think y'all becomes more prevalent once you get south of Charleston and especially south of Beckley.
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Old 08-07-2020, 11:49 AM
 
Location: West Virginia
13,912 posts, read 39,111,696 times
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Only on the Beverly Hill Billys..... Lived here 45 years Nope Never!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hah2Tf4817c
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Old 08-07-2020, 03:48 PM
 
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Not in the northern part of the state. It's more often "you guys" than "y'all."
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Old 08-08-2020, 07:33 AM
 
Location: West Virginia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mattec View Post
I think y'all becomes more prevalent once you get south of Charleston and especially south of Beckley.
I think the dividing line is further north. I live near Charleston and have known people from the area of Ravenswood and Ripley. They are southern in speech style. Find a point half way between Charleston and Clarksburg and see if that doesn't divide the speech into northern and southern. That would be somewhere around Flatwoods.

There are several places right in the city of Charleston where people live in "hollers" with the speech patterns and life styles that go along with that country life stereotype.
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Old 08-10-2020, 08:51 AM
 
Location: Ohio via WV
632 posts, read 820,770 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HillsAndTrees View Post
But you mentioned something that really bothers me, someone who knows nothing about WV writing a book set in WV.
Hard agree on this one

But yes, if you live basically south of I-64, you say y'all all the time. Northern WV doesn't really.
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