Y'all and No?

[Natalie Maynor]

Charles Wells wrote:

> 1) I have been occasionally hearing non-southern young people (mainly
> college students) use "y'all" as a second person plural the way southerners
> do.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Is it spreading?

Yes.  "Y'all" has been spreading outside the South for a good while
now.  Meanwhile, "you guys" is infiltrating the South (among younger
speakers).  My female students say that, though they personally use
"y'all" and not "you guys," they feel included when somebody says
"you guys" to a group they're in.  I don't.  I still think of guys
as males.

> 2) I have also heard non-Latino students use "no?" in the way it is used in
> Spanish (without any joking Mexican accent), as in
> "That movie is at the Rialto, no?"

I hear it, and I think I sometimes say it.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)