Yo, Have You All Heard 'We All'?

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/14/08 3:13:53 PM, cats22 at frontiernet.net writes:


> There was no intent to imply 'we all' is "some kind of risible stupid
> ghetto pronoun' or anything of the sort.
> And FWIW, you might be surprised how many New York blacks use 'y'all'.
> dh
>

I would not be at all surprised at how many New Yorkers use "y'all". Indeed,
it is common knowledge that people--of whatever color--who have migrated to
northern urban areas from the South preserve Southern features in their speech.
There is no evidence--from the passage quoted in cats22's original
posting--that this speaker is "black."

Perhaps I was overly sensitive to what I perceived to be the invidious
subtext of cats22's original postings. The vocative particle (or whatever it is)
"Yo" in the subject line is stereotypical of "ghetto" speech, as is the use of
the pronominal "You All." In addition, cats22's writes, " 'We all'? Is that the
way Vern Ackular usually puts it? Or is that simply one of Les Common's
peculiarities?"--which certainly sounds patronizing and condescending, as does her
follow-up comment that the Beatles's "We all live in a yellow-submarine" would
be relevant only if "maybe the yellow submarine was rent-subsidized." In the
context of a story about a Black congressman and rent-subsidized housing, it
doesn't seem to me that my inference (that cats22 was suggesting that the
speaker's language was laughable ghettoese) was too far off the mark, regardless of
what she feels her intent was.


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