MacNeil-Lehrer News Hr

[Beverly Flanigan]

Well, I wasn't correct in thinking Lehrer was from Texas either, though
close.  But my feeling that "you all" is South Midland (or Upper South, for
those who prefer Carver's terms) seems supported, vs. "y'all" in the Deep
South.  Most of Kentucky and southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the
states just west of the Mississippi (maybe we should call these West
Midland) all seem to have some "you all" in the simple plural sense we've
been talking about (not in the emphatic sense of Julia's second
letter).  I've adopted it myself and am quite comfortable with it.  But
Lehrer's "I thank you all, both" seemed strange to me--explainable to me
only by the slight pause before "both," as if to make a
self-correction.  He even smiled impishly afterwards.

At 11:35 AM 1/26/2004 -0800, you wrote:
>I think the divisions did get drawn before, to some extent.  I'm from
>Dallas, and we never said "ya'll.  I started part of this discussion
>months ago by trying to determine where the divisions lay in Kentucky and
>discovered that ya'll and its derivatives was only the beginning.  Anyway,
>in my section of Dallas, we said you'all, and it was always plural.  That
>was in the 1950s and early 1960s.
>
>And thanks for clearing up my mistake about the newsmen's origins!
>
>Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg <eulenbrg at u.washington.edu>
>
>On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: MacNeil-Lehrer News Hr
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Whether he's Texan or Oklahoman, his use of "you all" rather than "yall" is
> > interesting (I agree with Matt Gordon that he never says "yall").  Does
> > Southern "yall" become "you all" west of the Mississippi?  I believe
> > Bethany has the full form too, right?  And Dan Rather does too, I think
> > (from Houston, as I recall).  Maybe we've drawn these divisions
> > before.  The same thing happens north of the Ohio, as in SE Ohio, where
> > just yesterday I heard a local announcer address the listening audience as
> > "you all."
> >
> > At 06:51 AM 1/26/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> > >I though Lehrer was an Oklahoman; perhaps transplanted?
> > >
> > >dInIs
> > >
> > >>McNeil hasn't been on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour for 10 or more
> years.  It
> > >>has been the Lehrer News Hour for at least that long. The speaker was
> indeed
> > >>Lehrer; not a Canadian, but rather a North Carolinian.
> > >>Jim Stalker
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>David Bergdahl <einstein at FROGNET.NET> said:
> > >>
> > >>>  It was MacNeil (Of McN-L) that was a Canadian Scot.
> >