Re: New Englishisms

Don Blaheta wrote:

> 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"...
What part of the country are you from?

I just got back today from a roadtrip to Washington, D.C.  My friends
and I were getting some food at a Pizza Hut in Gadsden, Alabama, and
when the waitress came up and asked us what we'd like to order,
I was almost knocked out of my seat by her accent.  One interesting
thing I noted, though, was how very consistently she used _y'all_:  she
even extended it to what I have always considered to be frozen phrases
like "thank you", which for her was "thank y'all".    Even though I use the
pronoun all the time myself, it still struck me as kinda strange...