A brief explanation of uses
Aug. 2nd, 2017 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2tZty4H:
torrilin:
petermorwood:
bylillian:
sweaterkittensahoy:
“Hey, y’all!” – General greeting as you walk into a room with more than one person. Polite hello.
“Could y’all help me out?” – Polite request for help to a roomful of people. First 1-3 people who respond will help you carry groceries, run you down to the store, or assist in moving a couch. If more people then necessary offer to assist with the task, the y’all speaker will choose with phrases such as, “Oh, Betty, honey, no, you just got home. You put your feet up.” Or, “Thanks, Jack, but I think I’ve got enough people.”
“I really need all y’all to listen.” – Everyone in the room needs to shut the fuck up and do as they are told. This is one step removed from fire being rained down upon you in anger. If you are in school when this happens, you’re about to make the teacher go into a five minute rant about manners and hard work.
“All y’all need to sit down.” – Congratulations. You just got you, your three cousins, and the dog grounded. Nice job.
“Who the hell told y’all you could do that?” – And now the cat is grounded too and your favorite aunt is about to be in a world of hurt.
“Y’all need to shush up and pay attention.” – Quit goofing off in church. The lord is watching.
“Oh, y’all are the sweetest.” – Everyone in the room is a really nice person.
“Oh, y’all are the sweetest!” – The y’all speaker hates everyone in the room [most likely because she specifically requested no bridal/baby/other shower and got forced into it anyway] and just wants to escape.
@petermorwood, this might interest you.
Yet another example of how to get the best mileage out of a word.
Where is “Y’all” from? I’d think of it as “generically South” but it must have a more specific origin than that.
I don’t know how far past the coal region it extends, but y'all is used in Pennsylvania. So it’s not southern exclusive. @bomberqueen17 I know you’re more either end, but is it a feature of any NY dialects? I suspect it’s really a rural feature.
It is not a native part of our dialect, either in Western or Eastern NY, nor have I observed it downstate (City area) or in the central region– or, for that matter, the north country either, where I’ve only vacationed– but it is such an indispensable turn of phrase that I know I use it a lot. Largely it’s out-of-towners who’ve imported it. So, I mean, you hear it a lot around here, but it’s definitely not part of our native local dialect.
I know what our native local dialect sounds like mostly because I’m utterly incapable of describing it, LOL.
We say things like “Hi everybody” and “hey can anybody help me” and “everybody listen up!” and so on. Less charming, but. I natively do that, and reserve “y’all” for when I’m actually directly addressing multiple people, especially if I need to be exclusive– say, a room with five people in it, three of whom I’m speaking to, so I’d use my hand and gesture at the three, and say, “Y’all are going to help me, and you guys are going home” gesturing instead at the other two. Etcetera.
It is definitely something that is commonplace south of the Mason-Dixon Line– sis’s fam/in-laws in GA and LA and MS all use it. The entire US Army uses it. (As an institution, their accent is somewhat Southern.)
torrilin:
petermorwood:
bylillian:
sweaterkittensahoy:
“Hey, y’all!” – General greeting as you walk into a room with more than one person. Polite hello.
“Could y’all help me out?” – Polite request for help to a roomful of people. First 1-3 people who respond will help you carry groceries, run you down to the store, or assist in moving a couch. If more people then necessary offer to assist with the task, the y’all speaker will choose with phrases such as, “Oh, Betty, honey, no, you just got home. You put your feet up.” Or, “Thanks, Jack, but I think I’ve got enough people.”
“I really need all y’all to listen.” – Everyone in the room needs to shut the fuck up and do as they are told. This is one step removed from fire being rained down upon you in anger. If you are in school when this happens, you’re about to make the teacher go into a five minute rant about manners and hard work.
“All y’all need to sit down.” – Congratulations. You just got you, your three cousins, and the dog grounded. Nice job.
“Who the hell told y’all you could do that?” – And now the cat is grounded too and your favorite aunt is about to be in a world of hurt.
“Y’all need to shush up and pay attention.” – Quit goofing off in church. The lord is watching.
“Oh, y’all are the sweetest.” – Everyone in the room is a really nice person.
“Oh, y’all are the sweetest!” – The y’all speaker hates everyone in the room [most likely because she specifically requested no bridal/baby/other shower and got forced into it anyway] and just wants to escape.
@petermorwood, this might interest you.
Yet another example of how to get the best mileage out of a word.
Where is “Y’all” from? I’d think of it as “generically South” but it must have a more specific origin than that.
I don’t know how far past the coal region it extends, but y'all is used in Pennsylvania. So it’s not southern exclusive. @bomberqueen17 I know you’re more either end, but is it a feature of any NY dialects? I suspect it’s really a rural feature.
It is not a native part of our dialect, either in Western or Eastern NY, nor have I observed it downstate (City area) or in the central region– or, for that matter, the north country either, where I’ve only vacationed– but it is such an indispensable turn of phrase that I know I use it a lot. Largely it’s out-of-towners who’ve imported it. So, I mean, you hear it a lot around here, but it’s definitely not part of our native local dialect.
I know what our native local dialect sounds like mostly because I’m utterly incapable of describing it, LOL.
We say things like “Hi everybody” and “hey can anybody help me” and “everybody listen up!” and so on. Less charming, but. I natively do that, and reserve “y’all” for when I’m actually directly addressing multiple people, especially if I need to be exclusive– say, a room with five people in it, three of whom I’m speaking to, so I’d use my hand and gesture at the three, and say, “Y’all are going to help me, and you guys are going home” gesturing instead at the other two. Etcetera.
It is definitely something that is commonplace south of the Mason-Dixon Line– sis’s fam/in-laws in GA and LA and MS all use it. The entire US Army uses it. (As an institution, their accent is somewhat Southern.)
