The most Texan of all expressions - Y'All - is ungendered and therefore woke

tissek@ttrpg.network to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 1251 points –
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Was this post designed to offend all non Texan southerners

Oh! Oh! Lemmy try! Lemmy try!

Ahem.

"Beans do not belong in chili."

Ya'll better watch out now y'hear? We don take kindly to that kind'a hate speech 'round these parts. Equal weight beans and beef, you skimp out either and yain't fixin' chili; you might'ina even be inclined to leave for everyone's sake.

kind'a

I can't believe I've never seen this before. "Kinda" does not mean "kind of." "Kind of" is not the proper way to write "kinda." They aren't interchangeable.

Kind'a is a contraction and specifically means kind of. Brilliant.

Where in the world do you not put beans in chili? That's literally the point of chili. Is this an American thing I'm too European to understand?

Chili involves 2 things: Chilis and beef. Much in the idea of molé sauce, you can get a lot of complexity from chili powder alone.

I've also heard them say tomatoes shouldn't be added to chilli as well

As a Texan, this is true. Traditional chili is based on the Mexican "chili con carne," meaning "chilies with meat."

Chili normally is a stew with 1 inch cubes of a tougher meat like chuck steak that's been stewed down until tender in a liquid (water or beef stock, sometimes even beer or coffee added) and a puree of reconstituted dried chiles (not chili powder) and other spices. Nothing else goes into traditional Texan chili. Beans are sometimes served on the side though. Adding beans is perceived as a cheap filter and skimping out on the meat.

This is the dish that started all of these other non-mexican versions of chili and you're missing out of you've never had it!

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Idk but if so, mission accomplished I guess

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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


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.

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.

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Is it bad that I'm more bothered by "j'suppose" than the inclusion of "anyway"?

C'est un trait quebecois, je pense.... les cowboys fringants la dit ("anyway"), donc je ne sais, c'est probablement ok.... J'ai entendu "j'suppose" avant aussi, vraiment, je pense..? Est-ce que ça n'est pas comme "I'spose" en anglais? Reverso a beaucoup des examples pour "j'suppose", quand mĂȘme. (Je ne suis pas quebecois ou francophone, si tu ne peut pas voir pour quelque raison; je suis un idiot anglophone.)

"I'spose" est facile. "J'suppose" est dur Ă  dire, parce qu'on ne peut pas dire "j's" comme "i's".

J'ai dû sortir mon français rouillé. Merci pour la pratique. Et oui, j'ai utilisé Google.

“I’spose” est facile. “J’suppose” est dur à dire, parce qu’on ne peut pas dire “j’s” comme “i’s”.

Eh, je ne sais. C'est plus difficile que "I'spose", oui, mais je pense que c'est ok.. Les cowboys fringants dit aussi "j'te", "j'rentre", et probablement les autres consonnes aussi, donc, généralement, je l'imagine comme si on bredouille un peu.

J’ai dĂ» sortir mon français rouillĂ©. Merci pour la pratique. Et oui, j’ai utilisĂ© Google.

Et la mĂȘme Ă  toi! Mais j'utilise Google pour traduire du français vers l'anglais, aprĂšs avoir premiĂšrement Ă©crit la français avec Collins et quelquefois Reverso (mon professeur français a toujours aimĂ© ça). Je fais des corrections alors peut-ĂȘtre. Ainsi, Google me dit si j'ai fait des grosses erreurs, mais je pratique mon français tout seul.

Well, I'm doing my best to import it into the New Zealand vernacular, we are South of the 49th.

So, uh, I dunno.

It's not that it can't be used elsewhere. We just don't want Texas to take all the credit.

Take it from the south; it will kill them inside.

You can use yall but the "L"s are quieter the further north you go such that they're silent near the border

"How ya doin" is simply plural above the 49th

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Everyone gets y'all. It fills the dumb gap in English where the plural of you is you. Now if we could only get a singular neutral 3rd for people that isn't also the plural.

E: Or we could start pronouncing They singular like latchkey, for a thee sound. So we can get fun words like they's (thees). It will also make English even more confusing for newbies. What's not to love?

If the plural of goose is geese, then the plural of moose is meese.

I approve of this message, are y'all with me?

So long as we can still claim "Y'all'd'nt've"

It's our greatest contribution to the lexicon and extremely efficient.

It's also second person plural (or singular), second person is always ungendered.

First and second person, plural and singular are never gendered: I, you, we, you / y'all / all y'all. The only pronouns that are gendered are the third person singular: he / she / it. Third person plural (they) is also ungendered.

The most common form (at least where I'm from) of second person plural behind "you all (y'all)" is gendered: "you guys". It's used in an ungendered way increasingly commonly, but "guy" is still gendered to plenty of English speakers.

"Guys" is sometimes gendered, sometimes not. There really isn't a female-gendered equivalent to "you guys". You could say something like "you gals", but that's just not used. Most often you could say "could you guys follow me?" to a group of women and nobody would think twice about it.

As someone who grew up in North Carolina, I agree. Texas might be the first thing some people think of when it comes to "southern" states, but it doesn't get exclusive claim to the quirks of the whole region

I have never thought of Texas as southern (yes, I know they're the south-most state). Western movies were in Texas, so Texas is western (don't judge my very clearly faulty logic). South Carolina is south for sure. Georgia. Mississippi and Alabama are no brainers. But Texas? That's where western cowboys live... sorry.... cowyalls.

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“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”

All y'all's "all y'all" for all and for y'all

Don't forget y'all'd've as in " y'all'd've been fine with just y'all "

Y'all is exclusive. All y'all is inclusive.

If I walk into a party in a house and a group of my friends are there and I say 'what are y'all doing here?', I'm only talking to my friends.

If I walk into my own house and there's a party there and I say 'what are all y'all doing here?' I'm addressing everyone of the hoodlums in my house.

Edit: To the person who down voted yet contributed nothing to the convo, please feel obliged to read up on clusivity in linguistics.

I was one of the downvotes. Clusivity, as described in your article does not apply to y'all. It's You All...it will never include the speaker.

It'd have to be something like w'all to apply.

We’re very inclusive in Australia also.

‘G’day you bunch of cunts’ means hello to everyone male, female, known and unknown.

We’re very polite over here.

Getting pressed enough about a single downvote to make an edit is cringe.

Yeah. We mostly think of grammatical number as a simple choice of singular vs plural but that's not what we do in real life.

We generally have multiple labels that describe the concept of progressively expanding circles of what's included when we think of ourselves.

There's the very narrow sense of I/me/myself. We have various expansions around us/all'y'all. Jamaicans have the phrase "I and I" which focuses on the individual but explicitly calls out the connection with others.

So then "All y'alls" (not all y'all's) would be ultrasuperpluralization?

Sounds right.
Presumably "y'all's" would be the second person superplural possessive.

In New England (the best England), we have “youse”.

We also have "Ya'" where we elide the entire ending and you need to determine plural vs singular from context. For example, "Ya' can't get thea, les' ya been there befoa."

Y'all is not Texan. Y'all is Southern and Texas is Southern wannabe.

Texas is a southern wannabee

See also: Florida.

Florida is so redneck that they crossed a threshold into its own category. Florida Man.

Seriously, I can't believe people try to say its not really the south. Like its literally the furthest south you can go in the US.

It's like Austria. Sure, technically they're German, but they're their own thing

"Austria is German(y)" was pushed by a very specific group for a very specific purpose.

The word you want is Germanic. There is a very important distinction between the national and ethnic or cultural terms here.

Thank you, seriously wasn't trying to make fascist arguments, I promise. Just trying to make a comparison and why certain things can't always be grouped together

Goddamn don't let Austrians hear you just called them German

Hawaii would like a word.

Please, they are like middle earth.

And Puerto Rico would also

are they a state or not though.

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As a Texan we are not southern ;)

We are sort of western. But yea too late to the party to be southern imo.

Depends. Texas exists as a state in part because southern US farmers ran out of land to grow cotton in. A good chunk of Texas is just an extension of the south. Then again, a good chunk is an extension of Mexico. Tejanos don't get the credit they are due for the formation of the Republic.

You mean it has a several well developed left wing voting cities between the huge stretches of backwater redneck hellscapes? I'd love to know what makes Texas not southern....

Texas is a Southwest state that identifies as Southern, making all of Texas inherently woke

By that logic Pennsylvania is Southern... And Washington State... And probably most of the country.

I mean, it's certainly disgusting white trash enough. It's got a lot of similar characteristics. Although I think eating horse turds to celebrate a championship is pretty unique. So they've got that and the throwing batteries at Santa thing to separate themselves. Fuck Philly.

Okay, not my point. The point is that part of the human condition is that the more urban you are the more liberal you will be.

Someone in a rural environment does not see the problems that someone in an urban environment does which means the two groups have different priorities, look at New York. You see the same trend of blue in the cities and great big swaths of red everywhere else. Same for Washington State, same for California, really just pick a state and you're going to see this trend.

It's in no way a uniquely Southern thing. It's just the fact that if your closest neighbor is 3 miles away and you know everyone in town, the scope of your problems are going to be pretty limited. That's because you don't know anyone who has the problems the city folk are complaining about, so the magnitude of the problems are lost on you.

All'a Y'all better stop clowning on Texas y'all.

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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: 😂

0% true. Also Texan, and not just any Texan, rural Texan until recently. This is nonsense

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y’all means all

What state is this?

North Carolina

Also known as the best Carolina or at least the less awful one. Seriously though, fuck South Carolina.

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.

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

While true there are some groups people and politicians are trying to make it be better and change things like that. I can't think of anyone in SC that is doing that (though I admit I don't keep up with their politics outside broad nationwide headlines)

Well I DID add "or at least the least awful one". I know that NC is far from perfect, with some instances of truly horrid policies, but compared to SC it's almost downright progressive lol

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.

y'all is second person plural. First and Second person aren't gendered. Therefore, I is also woke

OMG yes! We must make this a thing, make the right speak in caveman to fit their troglodyte nature! Lol

It's actually a contraction from old English or Scots and has been around since 1631. The hicks are using socialist words that aren't theirs.

Y'all is the best pronoun.

It's second person can be used singular or plural, and the difference is all contextual.

It's ungendered and it's makes almost anything feel "more fun."

For those of you who aren't woke yet, I just made a fresh pot of coffee.

Hmmm, fresh pot ! Thanks, I'll have two ounces

Use metric units! Damn gun monkey!

Uuh, Yea, uhm -two, uuhhh... two metric kilograms of european cannabis, please.

An ounce is approximately 28 grams, so you'd probably want more like 56g of wacky tobaccy.

the oldest published "Y'all" was from Richmond Virginia in 1856 in the Southern Literary Messenger

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."

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The onlie trans community uses y'all a lot. And howdy and haiii :3

And folks/folx!

Because they demonized every other greeting as inherently evil and now they're only left with weird, archaic English phrases.

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"language is the universal whore that i must make into a virgin"

I started using y'all years ago due to its ungenderedness, in part from being in queer spaces. Walking into a room of trans women and enbies and saying "you guys" felt weird.

Being enby, you guys feels weird when I’m included in it.

Being female, yes.

But I do delight in the awkwardness when they're called on it and try to backtrack and blush all the way down to their male genitalia.

Why? Guys is genderless imo and used that way all the time in life, this is such a weird take.

I guess some people are totally ok with exclusionary language and don't care about the people they affect with it. Carry on.

I know many female coworkers who also say guys in a genderless fashion, it's your choice to get upset about something so benign though.

It's also a good substitute for "you guys"

“Guys” is an ungendered word. Has been since the 80’s (and likely well before): https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19074/what-is-a-feminine-version-of-guys

People who are into pronouns and all that crap really need to do more research.

I banged 10 guys last night

The same night my mom died, so did my pride and that small clock near the door.

What’s your point flipping words?

I guarantee you that when most people think of a "guy", they aren't thinking of a woman. This is the same argument as "mailman is gender-neutral".

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I actually have been using y'all in this manner for about a decade. I found some women didn't appreciate being called "you guys" when I addressed a group of people.

on the other hand i hate using a word that is not a part of my dialect. it feels so goofy to say, and you guys has always been ungendered in my use

I'm trying to be more conscious of it because i noticed my friends who are trans make a point to avoid "You guys". I'm resistant to y'all though, so instead of biting the bullet and adopting the local dialect, I'll say "you all" or "You two". Don't do what i do, y'all is kinda useful.

Y'all oughtta distinguish "y'all" from "all y'all".

I thought the distinction was clear:

  • y'all - singular
  • all y'all - plural

That's not right:

  • you - singular
  • y'all - plural
  • all y'all - superplural

Y'all refers to multiple people, all y'all refers to multiple groups of people

My understanding:

  • you: the person I'm talking to
  • y'all: the group of folks I'm talking to
  • all y'all: y'all, plus anyone else that could possibly be addressed by me (everyone in voice range)

(Agreeing and using different words to say the what I think is the same thing)

I feel like y’all covers up to ~3 and “all y’all” (my favourite Americanism) is reserved for more than that?

As a born and raised southerner, y'all can be used for one person or many, with no clear limit on the number. All y'all is used to stress a point or to make it clear that it references everyone capable of hearing the message or just anyone who could be intended. All y'all is mainly used, in real world applications, in the sentence "all y'all can go fuck y'allself" or similar.

Uh, it's "all y'alls".

I thought that's the plural genitive.

While I won't disagree, is a discussion about "y'all" really the place for a phrase like "plural genitive"? ;)

Southern US English is a language, and is therefore a proper subject for linguistics, so ... yes?

If y'all spent as much time and energy on useless pronouns as y'all spent on advocating for universal healthcare, y'all could have gotten that last doctor visit paid for by y'alls gob'ment and not having to dip into y'alls savings.

Y'all need to check your priorities.

Problem here is the thread is focusing on a Texas y'all but then you throw a gob'ment in which is much more Georgia southern and it ruins the whole vibe right at the end. The voice in my head broke accent.

Well I think y'all is as much southern as it is Texan. But what does my northern Yankee ass know? Just stay away from all them hicks.

You lot? I use you lot in place of y'all, because I can't bring myself to contract you and all together.

That sounds rude, though. Like "you people".

Right?? I kept asking friends and family if that's too rude, and they assured me that it wasn't, so I kept using it. I guess it might be on tone of voice, too.

It's not rude. I say youse.

Y'all just feels more all encompassing where as you lot sounds to me like a limited number of people.

The definition of woke: “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

-Ron DeSantis chief counsel

Anyone that would argue woke is bad is a racist, sexist, bigot

If wokeness is only about American society, why are y'all dragging other countries into it?

Are you a racist, sexist bigot? If not, this woke stuff shouldn't really bother you.

I think people of all races should be treated equally, which is apparently considered racist according to the woke ideology.

I just gave you the definition of woke from the American politician who is the most "anti-woke". How in the world can you interpret that definition as meaning it's racist to treat all races equally?

I didn't say it based on the definition you posted; but bassd on my countless encounters with “woke” people.

So you're making your own definition of woke and you don't like the definition you've settled on. Got it.

Feel free to take the definition I've give you and use it to educate others.

Whatever definition you use doesn't change what actual "woke” people think.

Maybe. But it does change what YOU know to be the definition. Makes it easier to separate the people from the word.

OK then when you get out of the shower you go

oh, duh, only third person singular pronouns are ever gendered in English. why would I ever think a second person pronoun would be gendered?

I'm not even in America amd I use y'all. So it's clearly not Texan.

I'm not even in the UK and I speak English.

Is that a second language in addition to UKinglish?

Shit, if ungendered pronouns make it woke, then I should ditch my native language.

English is the wokest language. In Spanish, all nouns are gendered. That means when Trump wanted to build a wall, he was actually being woke AF.

Did you just assume my nongender?

It's the internet. I assume everyone, until it being proven otherwise, is either a sentient amorphous blob or a bot.

As a rural west coaster, Ya'a' (pronounced yuh-ah) will do.

So that's where we get TV "southern" from...

Y'all posers.

You want to be inclusive like we did down in Tennessee, right all'y'all?

"All Y'alls" is based though.

"Y'all" is plural "you" (at this point).

"All y'all" is an enhancer and clarification meaning, "every one addressed."

It is, also, based (and fun).

Y'all'dn't've is just next level stuff.

Please explain the last one I do not grok

Yall would not have; negative form of y'all'd've.

'd = would n't = not 've = have

If y'all'dn't've upvoted this thread, I might not have seen it.

Also: cool to see the word grok.

Tbh, I've heard more y'alls in the San Francisco Bay Area than in Texas (I've live din both). Granted I lived in an immigrant-heavy place in Texas that I didn't even live in for that long.

I'm Texan. I say y'all quite often. Subconsciously. But when I think about it, it always seems weird. Like if I TRY to use it then it always seems wrong.

I don't think conservatism is about being rational it's about maintaining tradition or maybe morality, however it was defined by the previous generation.

Conservatism is about absolute control by any means necessary

Conservatism is about making it illegal for the rest of the world to exist in a manner other than the one that you personally want it to.

I feel like you don't actually know that and it's just your opinion.

I've always used y'all when greeting strangers because of this very reason.

People should leave "y'all" alone. It doesn't belong to anyone. It is a natural contraction of "you" and "all" that several cultures have independently produced as part of their vernacular.

I am a Yankee from a state with a Canadian border.

I started saying y'all because it's ungendered!

Being against wokeness is another word for being racist basically.

I avoid saying y'all so people won't assume I'm a right wing southerner. If we could just push this it'd be hilarious and amazing.

Don't be afraid to show the world that not all southerners are right wing. I am prideful of my southern heritage while at the same time embracing others and celebrating theirs. I'll never be ashamed of my drawl/accent and if other people choose to look down on me, well, that sounds like their loss.

I'm a Southern transplant living in New England for the last couple decades and I've never thought of "y'all" as being indicative of right-wingedness. I use it all the time and it doesn't feel like anyone thinks anything of it.

I avoid it because my schools would not allow it's use because "it's slang and not a word." Same with "ain't."

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.

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)

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

Looks like you were, indeed, triggered by that.

"Woke" is just another word to use to describe something that isn't conservative enough. There is nothing temporal about it these days.

If you think a word or action is bad, it's "woke". The word to describe someone who is not conservative enough is "librul".

The actual definitions or proper context does not matter to people who just parrot what they hear.

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

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

So you have no idea what you are saying?

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

Oh, so you are one of those people who think they aren't a useful idiot.

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