Re: Californian vowels [was Re: Liking German]

Quoting David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

> In a message dated 10/1/01 8:15:07 PM, trwier@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
> writes:
>
> << She insisted it was a <y'all> used in the singular, while
> all of us who actually use the pronoun insisted that there must have
> been some kind of external reason for it of the kind that I mention
> above. >>
>
>     You're kidding, right?  Haven't you seen any movies where people
> use "y'all" for the singular?  It happens all the time!  Rent Thelma and
> Louise, or something; I'm sure it's in there once.  It's almost like an
> honorific, and is usually restricted to the phrase "How y'all doing?", from
> what I've seen/heard.
Um, I beg your pardon, but I'm not going to derive grammaticality
judgements from _Thelma and Louise_. No, I have never heard it used
in the singular, if you adjust for such situations as I have described.
I think the onus is on those who say it has been thus used to provide
such evidence if it exists.  (The curious thing is that it's always
those who don't use the pronoun that claim that they've heard it used
as a singular.)

==============================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...>

"If a man demands justice, not merely as an abstract concept,
but in setting up the life of a society, and if he holds, further,
that within that society (however defined) all men have equal rights,
then the odds are that his views, sooner rather than later, are going
to set something or someone on fire." Peter Green, in _From Alexander
to Actium_, on Spartan king Cleomenes III