Southern grammar hammer

[anotheranon]

In response to an email going around about Southern (er, American Southern) slang:

"Y'all" is always plural: it is a contraction of "you all" and refers to "you all" or "all of you". "All y'all" is an emphasis of "y'all": When you visit your mom and dad, you ask, "How've y'all been doing?" When you go to the family reunion, you say "It's been forever since I saw all y'all!"

The singular of "y'all" is "you", just as it is in other English dialects.

Also, in case you missed my prior ponderings on this subject:

Naked = not wearing any clothes.

Nekkid = not wearing any clothes, and up to somethin' ;)

The two are often confused, but the differing inflection helps remove some of the ambiguity.

Comments

[plaidsheep.livejournal.com]

I'm a good ol' yankee gal and I even know the difference between "you" and "y'all".... and it's "Y'ALL" not "YA'ALL" ;-)

I actually had this conversation with a coworker of mine who grew up in Alabama. She thought it was pretty funny when northerners try to use southern slang.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

"Y'all" is actually getting a lot more currency outside the south these days. I'm guessing it might be because it's so commonly used in hip-hop lyrics (?)