1252
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by tissek@ttrpg.network to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

Y'all was created to serve a completely artificial problem.

English has second person singular pronouns, but for some dumbfuck reason we've deprecated them. It's still maintained in the standard for compatibility with legacy literature but not recommended for new works. If thou talk'st this way, thy speech comes off as archaic/shakesperian/biblical. So we use the second person plural for everything. But this removes the ability to encode context on how many thou art addressing. "You! Go put that fire out." Are you talking to an individual in a group or the whole group?

So the American south turned "you" into the singular form and invented "you all" contracted to "y'all" for the plural form.

Now we just need to fix the first person plural problem, ie "We've just won the lottery!" Does "we" include the listener, or not? English doesn't encode that information; "we" don't have different words for "myself the speaker and the listener(s) and perhaps others" and "Myself the speaker, others, but not the listener."

[-] swab148@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Ah, compound contractions. Yeah that'll work. We've already got y'all've and y'all'd'a.

[-] Claidheamh@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago

Can't forget about y'all'dnt've.

[-] kenotron@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

y'all'dn't've forgotten an apostrophe if y'all'd de-contractify it: "you all would not have"

[-] hglman@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

The first person plural of we is we'uns.

[-] vivadanang@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

heard many you-uns growing up around the south.

this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
1252 points (92.1% liked)

Showerthoughts

29604 readers
1516 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics (NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out)
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS