The most Texan of all expressions - Y'All - is ungendered and therefore woke - eviltoast
  • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I refuse to accept Texas’ claim on y’all. Its a word collectively owned by everyone south of the mason-dixon line and I will fight to the death over this.

    Signed, floridaman

    • Intralexical@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      …Am I not allowed to use “y’all”, north of the 49th parallel? Do we have to bring back “thou” so “you” can be plural again? Or is this part of the Quebecois plot to force everyone to parler en français donc nous pouvons utiliser “vous”? C’est bien, anyway, j’suppose.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Fun fact:

        “Thou” and “you” were the same word.

        The “th” sound used to have its own character in written English called the thorn. When typefaces came along, it was excluded and sometimes replaced with a “y.”

        Also why “Ye” and “The” are the same.

      • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Is it bad that I’m more bothered by “j’suppose” than the inclusion of “anyway”?

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        Well, I’m doing my best to import it into the New Zealand vernacular, we are South of the 49th.

        So, uh, I dunno.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You can use yall but the "L"s are quieter the further north you go such that they’re silent near the border

        “How ya doin” is simply plural above the 49th

    • ilex@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Everyone gets y’all. It fills the dumb gap in English where the plural of you is you. Now if we could only get a singular neutral 3rd for people that isn’t also the plural.

      E: Or we could start pronouncing They singular like latchkey, for a thee sound. So we can get fun words like they’s (thees). It will also make English even more confusing for newbies. What’s not to love?

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If the plural of goose is geese, then the plural of moose is meese.

        I approve of this message, are y’all with me?

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So long as we can still claim “Y’all’d’nt’ve”

      It’s our greatest contribution to the lexicon and extremely efficient.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It’s also second person plural (or singular), second person is always ungendered.

      First and second person, plural and singular are never gendered: I, you, we, you / y’all / all y’all. The only pronouns that are gendered are the third person singular: he / she / it. Third person plural (they) is also ungendered.

      • FunctionFn@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        The most common form (at least where I’m from) of second person plural behind “you all (y’all)” is gendered: “you guys”. It’s used in an ungendered way increasingly commonly, but “guy” is still gendered to plenty of English speakers.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          “Guys” is sometimes gendered, sometimes not. There really isn’t a female-gendered equivalent to “you guys”. You could say something like “you gals”, but that’s just not used. Most often you could say “could you guys follow me?” to a group of women and nobody would think twice about it.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      As someone who grew up in North Carolina, I agree. Texas might be the first thing some people think of when it comes to “southern” states, but it doesn’t get exclusive claim to the quirks of the whole region

      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        I have never thought of Texas as southern (yes, I know they’re the south-most state). Western movies were in Texas, so Texas is western (don’t judge my very clearly faulty logic). South Carolina is south for sure. Georgia. Mississippi and Alabama are no brainers. But Texas? That’s where western cowboys live… sorry… cowyalls.