Linguistic discussion of "y'all"

System
System Posts: 1,040 Chairperson of the Boards
edited December 2019 in Off Topic
This discussion was created from comments split from: No Spend December starts NOW.
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  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,923 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
  • Dogface
    Dogface Posts: 1,009 Chairperson of the Boards
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    Enter cowboy hat  :)
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,603 Chairperson of the Boards
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    I go out of my way to say "y'all" in official communication with my customers. 'Round these parts (the American Gulf South) we keep it real folksy-like.
  • shardwick
    shardwick Posts: 2,121 Chairperson of the Boards
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    To be fair he probably started with "You peasants" then changed it.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,923 Chairperson of the Boards
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    I go out of my way to say "y'all" in official communication with my customers. 'Round these parts (the American Gulf South) we keep it real folksy-like.
    Fair enough. I am not familiar enough with USA proticals so I am happy to concede, I thought the term was quite disrespectful! If you say otherwise I bow without hesitation. But I'm a Cockney geezer from East Lahndon Town but I'm not sure I would ever call my clients a slang term or tell them where the rub a dub is. But maybe..I should!
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,603 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2019
    DAZ0273 said:
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    I go out of my way to say "y'all" in official communication with my customers. 'Round these parts (the American Gulf South) we keep it real folksy-like.
    Fair enough. I am not familiar enough with USA proticals so I am happy to concede, I thought the term was quite disrespectful! If you say otherwise I bow without hesitation. But I'm a Cockney geezer from East Lahndon Town but I'm not sure I would ever call my clients a slang term or tell them where the rub a dub is. But maybe..I should!
    It's not disrespectful, it's just a colloquialism for "you all." It's certainly informal, but it isn't inherently offensive. Maaaaaaaybe similar to the Spanish "vosotros" conjugation?*

    *not a native Spanish speaker lol

    I would have expected a Yankee from the northeast to have said "yous guys" maybe though. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,923 Chairperson of the Boards
    shardwick said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    To be fair he probably started with "You peasants" then changed it.
    Honestly, this is it seems a cultural thing here. "Y'all" in all the instances I have ever seen used always seems to be framed in negative connotations as a dismissive term followed by a putdown/lecture but it is not used in any real context in my country so my assumptions are skewed. It always seemed to framed in disrespect but that just seems to be my ignorance.
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    DAZ0273 said:
    shardwick said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    To be fair he probably started with "You peasants" then changed it.
    Honestly, this is it seems a cultural thing here. "Y'all" in all the instances I have ever seen used always seems to be framed in negative connotations as a dismissive term followed by a putdown/lecture but it is not used in any real context in my country so my assumptions are skewed. It always seemed to framed in disrespect but that just seems to be my ignorance.
    That's what makes English a tricky language sometimes, because it *can* be used in the manner you describe. 

    It can also be used in the harmless colloquial way others have described. 

    It kind of comes down to tone, inflection, context, and a number of other factors that can get "lost in translation" when posted online. 
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,603 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2019
    It's a grouping, so you can use it to be inclusive familiar "Y'all need anything right now?" or to be exclusive dismissive "I'm going to need to ask y'all to leave..."

    It's all in the tone of voice. I like to laugh about the Television South compared to The Actual South whenever I see it. I'm fully aware of how we are presented to the world lol.
  • Dogface
    Dogface Posts: 1,009 Chairperson of the Boards
    Y'all yell yolo
  • abmoraz
    abmoraz Posts: 715 Critical Contributor
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    I go out of my way to say "y'all" in official communication with my customers. 'Round these parts (the American Gulf South) we keep it real folksy-like.
    Fair enough. I am not familiar enough with USA proticals so I am happy to concede, I thought the term was quite disrespectful! If you say otherwise I bow without hesitation. But I'm a Cockney geezer from East Lahndon Town but I'm not sure I would ever call my clients a slang term or tell them where the rub a dub is. But maybe..I should!
    It's not disrespectful, it's just a colloquialism for "you all." It's certainly informal, but it isn't inherently offensive. Maaaaaaaybe similar to the Spanish "vosotros" conjugation?*

    *not a native Spanish speaker lol

    I would have expected a Yankee from the northeast to have said "yous guys" maybe though. 

    Yinz or die...

    /Native Picksburgher
  • monsieurmojo
    monsieurmojo Posts: 370 Mover and Shaker
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    ThaRoadWarrior said:
    DAZ0273 said:
    I don't normally tend to flame the Dev's but seriously just using "y'all" in any form of response that is going to be shared and scrutinised regardless of being "official" or not - it isn't a great example of professionalism or media savvy communication is it? 
    I go out of my way to say "y'all" in official communication with my customers. 'Round these parts (the American Gulf South) we keep it real folksy-like.
    Fair enough. I am not familiar enough with USA proticals so I am happy to concede, I thought the term was quite disrespectful! If you say otherwise I bow without hesitation. But I'm a Cockney geezer from East Lahndon Town but I'm not sure I would ever call my clients a slang term or tell them where the rub a dub is. But maybe..I should!
    It's not disrespectful, it's just a colloquialism for "you all." It's certainly informal, but it isn't inherently offensive. Maaaaaaaybe similar to the Spanish "vosotros" conjugation?*

    *not a native Spanish speaker lol

    I would have expected a Yankee from the northeast to have said "yous guys" maybe though. 
    I'm from a town in Kentucky where the word "Y'all" appears on a local water tower in a timeless testament to how the Florence Mall can't advertise on a public structure.  I'm also a francophone.  RoadWarrior's dead on: I almost always use the term "y'all" as an analogue to the second person plural "vous." i.e. "how y'all doing?" = «comment allez-vous?»
  • Godzillafan67
    Godzillafan67 Posts: 744 Critical Contributor
    Making second person singular and plural the same was an idiot move. Curse you culture paradigm shift! Perhaps some medieval Cardashian-types influenced it this way.

    FYI: There is a joke that "y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,594 Chairperson of the Boards
    Y'all sure diverted this thread from the original topic.
  • shardwick
    shardwick Posts: 2,121 Chairperson of the Boards
    @DAZ0273 The main use of y'all is just an easier way of saying "you all." I'm from Texas so saying y'all is about as normal as a Brit saying something like bloody hell. Oddly enough because of the internet I say stuff like "you guys" a lot more and I've gotten Canadian friends to say y'all.
    bluewolf said:
    Y'all sure diverted this thread from the original topic.
    Y'all stop spendin' now, ya hear?
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,923 Chairperson of the Boards
    shardwick said:
    @DAZ0273 The main use of y'all is just an easier way of saying "you all." I'm from Texas so saying y'all is about as normal as a Brit saying something like bloody hell. Oddly enough because of the internet I say stuff like "you guys" a lot more and I've gotten Canadian friends to say y'all.
    bluewolf said:
    Y'all sure diverted this thread from the original topic.
    Y'all stop spendin' now, ya hear?

    Righto, jolly good stuff, carry on you fellows!
  • MegaBee
    MegaBee Posts: 1,297 Chairperson of the Boards
    DAZ0273 said:
    shardwick said:
    @DAZ0273 The main use of y'all is just an easier way of saying "you all." I'm from Texas so saying y'all is about as normal as a Brit saying something like bloody hell. Oddly enough because of the internet I say stuff like "you guys" a lot more and I've gotten Canadian friends to say y'all.
    bluewolf said:
    Y'all sure diverted this thread from the original topic.
    Y'all stop spendin' now, ya hear?

    Righto, jolly good stuff, carry on you fellows!
    I could hear the accent when I read that. Yinz sound like Monty Python!
  • AXP_isme
    AXP_isme Posts: 809 Critical Contributor
    Is that how the cockneys are talking these days? Must be that hipster gentrification. It certainly didn’t sound like that around the old Boleyn ground. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,923 Chairperson of the Boards
    AXP_isme said:
    Is that how the cockneys are talking these days? Must be that hipster gentrification. It certainly didn’t sound like that around the old Boleyn ground. 

    There are no (or very few) Cockneys left around the Boleyn and very few in West Ham or even East Ham these days. Massive change in the area.

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