• nednobbins@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    “You” is also ungendered. There seems to be a common idea that English is missing a second person plural. We have one, it’s “you”. We just stopped using the second person singular. That’s what all those variations of “thee, thou, thy” etc were.

    “Y’all” would be a superpluralization. If that’s still not enough we also have the ultraplural form of, “all y’all”

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    That’s why conservatives have started to say yim’all and yer’all in order needlessly gender the expression. Can’t believe these folks sometimes.

    Edit: 😂

          • jasondj@ttrpg.network
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I went to South Carolina once. For the eclipse a few years ago.

            We flew into Charlotte, stayed there for a night, then Greenville SC for a night (to be in totality), and back to Charlotte for a couple of days.

            Crossing the border from NC to SC was less like crossing state lines and more like crossing the DMZ or the Berlin Wall. Just…a totally different word on the other side of that line.

            Best part was that I got to try out cheer wine. Also there was a guy in front of me at the concession stand (we saw the eclipse from the Greenville Zoo) on the phone with someone. He was trying to tell that person he was in the “food line” but the other person kept hearing “Food Lion”, the name of a local grocery chain.

            Although a couple of different guys saw me sweating my ass off in the zoo and offered me a “cool rag”. I had no idea what that was and it sounded disgusting so I politely declined…but in retrospect I have to appreciate their hospitality.

            Next eclipse, I’m going to Austin.

          • callouscomic@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            North Carolina once outlawed State officials mentioning or acknowledging climate change exists, to the detriment of their own coastal cities. We could also discuss bathrooms if you want. I think NC ought not be pointing fingers about who is better.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              North Carolina is only the way it is because of ridiculous gerrymandering so perhaps we shouldn’t be negative and discouraging of people who want it to be better

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.”

  • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    I refuse to accept Texas’ claim on y’all. Its a word collectively owned by everyone south of the mason-dixon line and I will fight to the death over this.

    Signed, floridaman

    • Intralexical@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      …Am I not allowed to use “y’all”, north of the 49th parallel? Do we have to bring back “thou” so “you” can be plural again? Or is this part of the Quebecois plot to force everyone to parler en français donc nous pouvons utiliser “vous”? C’est bien, anyway, j’suppose.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Fun fact:

        “Thou” and “you” were the same word.

        The “th” sound used to have its own character in written English called the thorn. When typefaces came along, it was excluded and sometimes replaced with a “y.”

        Also why “Ye” and “The” are the same.

  • Cam@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Its not woke. If its been around for awhile, its not woke. Woke words are new made up words or words used in a context to prove a progressive point.

    “Trigger” is a woke word when you say “Im so triggered by that”. However in this context “Johnny, do not pull down that lever, it will trigger the breaker box” is not woke.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Woke words are new made up words or words used in a context to prove a progressive point.

      So works (or phrases) like:

      • Civil rights Act of 1964
      • Equal Pay Act of 1963
      • Brown v. Bd. of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
      • Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
      • Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015)
      • Cam@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Chill out dude. Im not going to argue with you Y’all on the internets.

    • HikingVet@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      How long do you think the word woke, with any of the definitions (specifically the original), has been in use?

      • Cam@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I do not know. I first heard the term back around 2019 I believe and I always used an “urban dictonary” definition.

          • Cam@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Uh, no…

            Woke
            
            Umbrella term for individuals who are engrossed by social justice and thinks of themselves as saviors with a moral high ground, but remain willfully ignorant to the irrationality of their claims and the problems they create. These individuals give special treatment to certain minorities in hopes of ending racism and perpetuate mental illnesses as the norm.
            
            My son's woke kindergarten teacher taught him that he's actually a girl because he played with dolls.
            
            by sealcake May 27, 2022
            

            https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Woke