Re: New Englishisms

Tim Smith wrote:
>
> At 04:45 AM 3/15/99 -0500, Don Blaheta wrote:
> >This is actually something that I've been following for years now.  I'd
> >say that use of "y'all" has made considerable gains just in the last
> >twenty years or so; when I was young it was very stigmatised, but
> >nowadays it's not so bad, and just (_maybe_) gets you a funny look.  I
> >personally first picked it up in (of all things) my German class, where
> >the teacher wanted us to be clear about whether it was "you plural" or
> >"you singular"... I then proceeded to use it when I needed to make the
> >distinction elsewhere, and it has since worked its way consistently into
> >my speech.  A _lot_ of people I know (mostly fairly well educated) are
> >in a similar boat.  Fun stuff, watching linguistic change as it occurs.  :)
>
> Where I live (Albany, New York), "you guys" is used often, but not
> consistently, in informal speech as a second-person plural by many people
> (including me), regardless of gender of the addressees.  I also occasionally
> hear "youse", mostly from older working-class people.  It seems to me that I
> very seldom hear "y'all".
"y'all" is almost never said where I live (Norwalk, CT) but "you guys"
is VERY common and IS used consistently.  Everyone uses it in the same
case as above, second person plural regardless of gender.  "Youse" is
also never used.

-Nicole


>
> -------------------------------------------------
> Tim Smith
> timsmith@global2000.net
>
> Get your facts first and then you can distort them as you please.
> - Mark Twain
--
don't you find that it's lonely?
the corridor, you walk there alone
and life is a game, you've tried
and life is a game, you're tired