Re: Y'all (was: Old Norse (was Re: New to the list))

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>That's certainly true.  After the Civil War, there were also many blacks
>from
>the South that migrated to the North and formed their own communities,
>many of
>which maintained their use of "y'all".  These tend to be basilectal and
>rather
>isolated.  As far as I can tell, there is a greater stigma against the
>word in the
>Northeast than in the West (though I haven't lived in either region
>before -- I
>can't know for sure).
I've never ever heard anyone "put down" y'all before here in California.
Of course teachers didn't like us to use it but Then again, I don't use it
in formal speech, and I dont use it with strangers (which is why i said
informal, i use it with friends). If you say "y'all" with a southern drawl
here, then people will think you're hickish. I dont say it like that, I
say it the way I say every other word. The rednecks and hicks here dont
have any particular speech differences from other people (other than
keeping to themselves). I'd say in California, it has a slang connotation.

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