[Publib] "You Guys"

Thu Jul 12 20:35:17 EDT 2007

Folks in southern Missouri (or Missour-UH) say "you'uns" also, but they say
it more like "yUNZ". And I think y'all as 2nd person plural is essential in
English (I'm from Texas) although I never really have heard it used by
Texans or southerners as a singular pronoun (I've heard non-Texans or
non-southerners use it that way, though). But that could just be my
experience, not standard usage.

My 7th-grade Spanish teacher, who had a comically strong Texas twang (most
memorable is her pronunciation of "guantes" [means gloves] as
"guh-WAAAAAN-TAAAAAAYYZZZ") couldn't get us to figure out 2nd person plural
at all until she told us it was the Spanish version of "y'all".

-Meghan

On 7/12/07, Abbie Anderson <libraryabbie at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I have to add my favorite from over twenty years' soujourn in southern
> Indiana:
>
> you'uns (say, "YOOuhNZ", with the "uh" barely pronounced--it's a very
> comfortably ellided two syllables)
>
> Are any of you familiar with that one?! It's "you ones" conflated,
> methinks. It's very common among southern Indiana natives, and may well be
> common in Kentucky, too.
>
> I rather like "y'all," which was common in Indiana as well. Or I'll go
> with "all of you", if I'm feeling energetic and grammatically correct.We*definitely* need a 2nd-person plural in English. And while we're all at it,
> an inclusive and an exclusive first person plural ( i.e., a "we" including
> the person I'm talking to, and a "we" *not* including the person I'm talking
> to).
>
> I grew up in Seattle, and am now in my forties and back in southwestern
> Washington (I work in Woodland, 20 mi. north of Vancouver WA). Out here "you
> guys" is pretty much standard practice and gender-free, although the gender
> normatization to the masculine form kinda bugs me, too, when I'm feeling
> extra literal-minded (as if we should all be male).
>
>  And we haven't even started talking about a gender-neutral 2nd-person
> singular! I think it's hilarious that usage has pretty much defaulted to
> "they", even when the context is clearly and specifically one gender over
> another and a plural pronoun is grammatically incorrect ( i.e., it would
> be both accurate and appropriate to say "she" or "he", but you say "they"
> anyway).
>
> --Abbie
>
> On 7/12/07, Kathi Kemp-Tejeda <batonrouger2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Well, this semi-old, Louisiana native, Wisconsin
> > resident, is on a mission to implement the Correct Use
> > of the Second-Person Plural (y'all) to replace the
> > gender-oblivious "you guys," the awful-sounding
> > "youse" (plural "yousins") and other crippled excuses
> > for the non-existent subject form.
> >
> > Who's with me?  Come on, y'all, let's fix this.
> >
> > Kathi Kemp-Tejeda
> > Eager Free Public Library
> > Evansville, Wisconsin
> >
> > --- Bruce Bumbalough < Bbumbalough at ci.grapevine.tx.us>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Well, this too old, no suit owning, non conference
> > > going stick in the mud of a librarian grew up in
> > > Michigan where you guys was the norm for all groups
> > > and then moved to Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia and
> > > finally Texas among the south of the Mason-Dixon
> > > line extended states and he prefers y'all because it
> > > is a more accurate statement.
> > >
> > > 12/2007 10:21 AM >>>
> > > Hi, John,
> > >
> > > I'm from The Big Apple, and up there, we use "you
> > > guys" when addressing a crowd, no matter its gender.
> > >  After reading your post, though, I'm rethinking
> > > this habit.  Since I still say "dawg" and "cawfee,"
> > > I won't feel comfortable using the southern plural
> > > of you:  "y'all."  I'm going to opt for an authentic
> > > variation and say "youse" from now on. Thanks for
> > > setting me straight.  Youse are awl good people. An'
> > > I mean dat.
> > >
> > >   -- Kathleen
> > >
> > >
> > > "Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to
> > > find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill
> > > the tasks which it constantly sets for each
> > > individual."     -- Victor E. Frankl
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Bruce Bumbalough
> > > Reference Librarian
> > > Grapevine Public Library
> > > 1201 Municipal Way
> > > Grapevine, TX 76051
> > >
> > > 817-410-3404 or 817-410-3449
> > > bbumbalough@ ci.grapevine.tx.us
> > > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
> --
> **********************
> aanderson at fvrl.org
> Abbie Anderson, Community Librarian
> Woodland Community Library
> Fort Vancouver Regional Library District
>    "The story is our guide. Without it we are blind." --Chinua Achebe
> _______________________________________________
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>
>

-- 
**********************************
Meghan Miller Brawley
Graduate Student
University of Tennessee
School of Information Sciences
http://web.utk.edu/~mmille46

"She flitted in and out of the Public Library with the air of
conscientiously returning or bravely carrying off in her pocket the key of
knowledge itself."
-Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
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