"Y'all" redux

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sally, your very admission as a Southerner that you have heard other Southerners use "y'all" in the singular will mark you in certain quarters as "not really a Southerner" .

JL

"Sally O. Donlon" <sod at LOUISIANA.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Sally O. Donlon"
Subject: Re: "Y'all" redux
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I'm from south Louisiana and I never (AFAIK) use "y'all" in the
singular. Although I very occasionally hear others use it that way, my
immediate and automatic impression is that they must be "from away," as
we say down here, and are trying on the vernacular. Either that, or
they think that I'm "from away," and are consciously trying to act as
they believe visitors must perceive as being Southern for my benefit.
(I'm often asked where I'm from because I don't always have much of the
local accent. When that happens, I usually say that I'm "from away.")

sally donlon

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