Why is it that when people who are not Southern try to talk or write Southern, they frequently make the gross mistake of using "y’all" as a second-person singular pronoun?
Case in point: Today’s cartoon by Australian Pat Oliphant. He’s a brilliant cartoonist, and normally pretty good with dialects. But he really fell flat with today’s piece. What? You haven’t seen it? You don’t have a print copy of the paper? Well, that’s your fault. Everyone should subscribe, so don’t whine to me.
But I’ll describe it to you: The ghost of LBJ appears at the bedside of George W. Bush. The first words out of his mouth are, "Y’all are too young to remember, li’l feller." And yes, he is addressing one person — the current president.
I see this kind of thing all the time. Am I the one who’s wrong here? Is there a variety of Southern dialect that, against all reason, uses the contraction of "you all" other than as second-person plural? (Actually, in the very worst cases, misguided Hollywood Yankees have uttered "you all" — something I never hear people say in real life — as a singular reference. I guess it’s their way of saying they assume we’re stupid, and speak in a nonsensical manner.) If there is such a place, where is it — some obscure corner of Texas?
If so, I’d have to hear it to believe it.
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Oliphant put the last comment in this pretty weak cartoon to make sure all of his fans at the NY Times and Hollywood know he also is a true Bush Hater. As Ronald Reagan would have said, “There they go again.”
Personally, y’all, I prefer to hear those yankees speak and write like this. It immediately lets me know that whatever comes next, can’t be trusted.
Fake “Southern” is easy to recognize, it lacks the musical flow of our culture, and is irritating to the ears.
If you aren’t sure if the person is authentic, put them in a group with Gullah speakers and see if they can understand anything. Of course, that may only seperate the midlands and upstates from the low country. My Charleston Grandmother, rest her soul, often said those people upstate didn’t speak right, don’t trust them. I can’t write here what she said about yankees.
High walls and ancestor worship.
Brad,
A few notes:
No, you’re not wrong. No indigenous Southerner would ever use “ya’ll” in the second person singular. Actually, Standard English should adopt “ya’ll” since Modern English lacks differentiation between second person singular and second person plural pronouns. Of course, Elizabethan English was superior in this respect since not only were the pronouns defined by number, but also by case. Here’s how I keep thee/thou and ye/you straight:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
And
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
I’ve always suspected that the confusion with pronouns began after the Norman French invasion of England when English went underground for three hundred years to re-emerge as a drastically changed language. By 1350 A.D., English had lost most of its inflections, and this trend continued through the Elizabethan period to the modern period.
Southern speech is heavily influenced by Gullah (right here in SC) and African idioms. Before 1860, black people composed two-thirds of South Carolina’s population, hence the large effect on our language. In my opinion, the Low Country dialect of English is the most genuine Southern English. I suppose an argument may also be made that SC is the most genuine Southern state. Next time you “tote” something, remember that you are using an African word.
Years ago, when I lived in Chicago, I’d often be surprised when hearing perfect Piedmont and Low Country accents of second or third generation denizens of Chicago. Of course, these folks were the descendants of black people who had migrated north from South Carolina in earlier times.
All people who are raised in the South are at an immediate disadvantage concerning so-called psychometric testing (i.e., the SAT) because this sort of testing is heavily influenced by vocabulary and idiom.
Language reflects the dominant cognition of the people who control the society. Unfortunately, Standard English is a crabbed, time-oriented language that is still stuck in an Enlightenment rut. English has been codified to the point where it is difficult to express new ideas and new cognitions. Modern English is designed around inductive thinking and empiricism, whereas progress in the future will depend more on deductive thinking and planning to create new knowledge and new ideas.
The accepted spelling is “y’all” rather than “ya’ll” as I used previously: please forgive.
Personally, I prefer “youse all” when speaking to non-Southerners. It perplexes them no end.
Mark, best post ever. You beat me to the stitch.
As far as the black influence on the South, I’ve never understood why anyone could be blatantly, violently racist towards blacks since that race is responsible for at least a third of the patchwork of this quilt in which we live. I’ve always seen it spun by the hands of three fates: white, black and Native American, all Southern. I must capitalize “Southern” when it refers to us.
Now, this handiwork is coming unravelled with the increased influence of northern knitters, but that’s a tangential topic.
In regards to outsiders’ driving skills, alone, I must say, “Y’all crazy!”
Capital A,
Thanks for the compliment.
Maybe I should add a category to the blog: “Yankee influence.”
Brad,
I came across this post today when looking for information about language dialects.
I lived in Midland, Texas for about 17 years, and it is a relatively obscure corner of Texas. Y’all is singular and plural in Midland. Y’all has very regional usage in Texas. Easy enough to do, seein’ as how Texas is so danged big!
I called a girlfriend to verify my position that y’all is both singular and plural, and she said for me to tell you that if y’all want to come to Midland, we’ll set y’all straight about it, and if you bring someone, we’ll set all y’all straight.
My best,
Leslie