Heard on The Judges II

[Bradley A. Esparza]

I use 'you all' to distinguish in online forums, but strangely not 'y'all',
whereas I use contractions quite freely. I do use 'all y'all' in speech, but
not 'y'all' as much.

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> A mid-twenty-ish black woman, reads an excerpt from a letter written
> to her by a former friend. The friend, as quoted, twice uses "y'all."
>
> I find this surprising. I use "y'all" in speech all the time, when
> speaking to other black people, but I use it in writing only whin I be
> funnin' wit chawl. I don't use "y'all" even when writing to members of
> my family and I don't even feel comfortable using "you-all" in
> correspondence, except as a joke.
>
> I guess that young folk aren't as tense about sounding cullud as us
> older heads.
>
> -Wilson
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Bradley A. Esparza

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think." Dorothy
Parker, when asked to use the word 'horticulture' in a sentence.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org