April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,100 I have written.
Below is a post describing the summer when I learned a little about the way I talk that I hadn't realized. This was an A-Z post in 2015.
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Y is for You All
If you went one county north of me, you would hear a more Midwestern sound. Go one county south of me, and you would hear more of a country, southern sound. These variations also happened between towns to the more rural areas. I was a town kid living more to the north, so I didn't have much of an accent. Well, we all have an accent one way or another, but I sounded more like a news anchor than Ellie Mae Clampett. People have often been surprised when I tell them that I'm from WV. They think I should have much more of a southern drawl.
That was until I spent one summer in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had just graduated from college, and before heading off to grad school, I was doing a summer of field work for the USGS (United States Geological Survey) there. After spending the day in swampy muck with almost unbearable numbers of mosquitoes, we spent the evening at the bar in the local fishing "resort" where we were staying. We made fast friends with the owners and several of the locals who hung out there.
One evening, Gary, one of the owner's sons, said that I had a very southern accent. He said, "You talk like this," with very drawn-out, twangy words. Very southern. He also said that I said, "You all." Well, I guess I did sound kind of southern to someone who lived much further north than I did. But I had never noticed that I said you all. I learned in English class that you could be both singular and plural, and that's the way I wrote it. I thought I talked that way also. I knew I didn't say the southern contraction Y'all, but I hadn't realized that I said a form of it.
That summer, I tried to stop saying you all and use you for both singular and plural, like I thought I was already doing. And I couldn't do it. If a group of people were standing around and I said, "Do you want to go to the movies?" I would wait for a minute and then had to add all so my meaning was clear, "Do you all want to go to the movies?" Without the all, I was afraid that they wouldn't understand that I was inviting all of them. That's when I figured out that in my world you is singular and you all is plural.
And that's how it's been ever since. Just like it was before. You is singular, and you all is plural.
What do you say? You, you all, y'all, youins, ...
That was until I spent one summer in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had just graduated from college, and before heading off to grad school, I was doing a summer of field work for the USGS (United States Geological Survey) there. After spending the day in swampy muck with almost unbearable numbers of mosquitoes, we spent the evening at the bar in the local fishing "resort" where we were staying. We made fast friends with the owners and several of the locals who hung out there.
One evening, Gary, one of the owner's sons, said that I had a very southern accent. He said, "You talk like this," with very drawn-out, twangy words. Very southern. He also said that I said, "You all." Well, I guess I did sound kind of southern to someone who lived much further north than I did. But I had never noticed that I said you all. I learned in English class that you could be both singular and plural, and that's the way I wrote it. I thought I talked that way also. I knew I didn't say the southern contraction Y'all, but I hadn't realized that I said a form of it.
That summer, I tried to stop saying you all and use you for both singular and plural, like I thought I was already doing. And I couldn't do it. If a group of people were standing around and I said, "Do you want to go to the movies?" I would wait for a minute and then had to add all so my meaning was clear, "Do you all want to go to the movies?" Without the all, I was afraid that they wouldn't understand that I was inviting all of them. That's when I figured out that in my world you is singular and you all is plural.
And that's how it's been ever since. Just like it was before. You is singular, and you all is plural.
What do you say? You, you all, y'all, youins, ...
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Until next time...
Since I do have an Ellie Mae sound to my voice, I am well versed in all forms of y'all. It is part of my everyday vernacular and I do use it correctly. For everyday speech you is the singular form ( though in formal writing I will also use you as a plural form). Y'all is more than one person, and all y'all is a whole bunch of y'alls.
ReplyDeleteThough everyone I known locally uses the word y'all, I have never heard it referring to just one "you", much to the chagrin of Southern dialogue in movies.
So Y'all is a few and All Y'all is many. I had heard All Y'all but never quite understood the distinction. Thanks for clearing that up.
DeleteSometimes, actors' southern accents are so bad, almost like caricatures, and that irritates me.
Oh how fun! Isn't the English language fascinating.
ReplyDeleteSince I am from SWVA, I do have a southern accent. I wish it was like Scarlett O'Hara, but it is more of the Ellie Mae variety. I have lived in other places, so my accent is less, but put me in a room with my childhood friends and my accent thickens by the minute. :D I'm with you though, you is singular and you all is plural. I don't think I say y'all, and I had never heard anyone say youins until my cousin married a mountain girl.
Kathy
Put me with more southern people, and I start getting a twang to my voice after a bit. I've worried in the past that the person might think I was making fun of them. :)
DeleteI've never noticed accents unless it's a British accent which is the only one I can distinguish.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of y'all and it does sound southern but I don't mind it. I don't actually the hear the phrase a lot except on tv when a character is trying to sound southern.
Have a lovely day.
I bet if you heard people from different parts of the country saying the same thing one after another, you would notice the difference. However, much of what we hear in the media sounds the same. I don't hear many differences, anyway
DeleteWorking in health care means that I encounter people from many locales. I enjoy trying to guess where people with an accent different from mine are from. There are so many flavors of southern accents! I wonder if the difference you noticed between WV counties is because the mountains tend to keep people in insular communities?
ReplyDeleteI was chuckling at your Wisconsin/UP of Michigan experience. The Yoopers have their own unique accent--you would notice a difference between them and those of us trolls (because we live under the bridge .... ) in the lower peninsula. I can imagine that you sounded very exotic to them. BTW, it sounds like you were in the not-so-pretty part of the UP. The bugs can be nasty in early and mid-summer.
So interesting to hear everyone's explanations of "y'all".
There are vastly different accents among the different areas of WV. Even when there aren't formal mountains pretty much all of WV is in hill country. I think the different accents are due more to the geography north and south than land forms.
DeleteWe stayed in Land of Lakes Wisconsin and did field work across the way in MI.
I've heard the term, "yous guys" when I was in Wisconsin. It struck me as very odd, at the time. :)
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, I sometimes say "you guys"--a variation of "yous guys".
Delete