Regional Speech

David77 · #1 10-09-2003, 10:44 AM

"Southernism".
Remember:
"Y'all" is singular.
"All y'all" is plural.
"All y'all's" is plural possessive.

Get used to hearing, "You ain't from around here, are you?

But don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't
understand you, either.

David77 · #2 10-09-2003, 10:44 AM

"Southernism".
Remember:
"Y'all" is singular.
"All y'all" is plural.
"All y'all's" is plural possessive.

Get used to hearing, "You ain't from around here, are you?

But don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't
understand you, either.

David77 · #3 10-09-2003, 11:09 AM

Trailscout enlightens us;

quote:
[qb]A tad more than 400 years ago, the "powers that be" made a stupid mistake: they dropped the word,
"Ye" (which used to be second person plural) from the English language. As in: "God rest ye merry gentlemen".
Realizing their mistake, folks set about to create a new word to take its place.
Southerners, being either more astute than other Americans or simply with more time on their hands decided to take "you all" and contract it to "y'all".

Later, our dim-witted (or perhaps simply too busy to think clearly) Yankee counterparts decided to coin the word, "Youse" to achieve the same result, but it also meant second person singular, the same as the word "you" does in more formal speech, so they were no better off for the change.

Not to be outdone, the Appalachian mountain folk just to my north coined the word, "you'uns", a contraction of "you ones". It's a bit awkward, but so typical of the way mountain folk patch things together their own way.[/qb]

Trailscout · #4 10-09-2003, 12:03 PM

David,

Perhaps English has been set adrift for 1000 years. Since 1066 and those dastardly Norman French arrrived to impose their language upon the hapless natives.

If Icelanders can still read their sagas without benefit of translation, why can't we read Beowulf?

It would take a generation or two, but we could restore Old English to everyday speech, all public transactions, court proceedings, roadside signs, etc. Let's go for it!
...............................................
Beowulf Scyldinga, leof leodcyning,longe ?rage folcum gefr?ge (f?der ellor hwearf, aldor of earde), o???t him eft onwoc heah healfdene; heold ?enden lifde, gamol ond gu?reouw, gl?de Scyldingas.

David77 · #5 10-09-2003, 04:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Trailscout:
[qb] David,

Perhaps English has been set adrift for 1000 years. Since 1066 and those dastardly Norman French arrrived to impose their language upon the hapless natives. [/qb]

I am almost certain that during a lecture on the English language, we were told that after the Normans conquered England in 1066, William the Conquoror, who then became King of England, forbid the English to learn or speak French, as he didn't want his soldiers to be able to communicate with the English girls as this would "contaminate" the French.

namedun · #6 10-09-2003, 04:52 PM

um, really, what would be the point of restoring ye olde english? Not only would that be a chore, but it's even less efficient than modern english.
And on a side note, most canadians do not have an accent any more different than what you would hear on cnn (which is basically no accent at all). Exceptions to this could include (don't take me for an expert) Manitobans. However, Cape Bretoner's, from the north island in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundlander's to a much greater extent, exhibit a highly mixed accent (for anyone who has seen the movie Snatch, a Newfoundlander sounds like a "pik-e", while Cape Bretoner's can be more easily understood).

Namedun

Naturist Mark · #7 10-09-2003, 05:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by namedun:
[qb]
And on a side note, most canadians do not have an accent any more different than what you would hear on cnn (which is basically no accent at all).Namedun [/qb]

eh? I don't know aboot that...

namedun · #8 10-09-2003, 06:40 PM

typical ignorance

**Boreas** · #9 10-09-2003, 07:13 PM

I moved to northern BC from southern Ontario (I grew up in London) and have discovered that Canada does indeed have more "accents" or speech patterns than I had thought. For instance, if you are from near Toronto, you of course do not pronounce the second "t" in Toronto...sort of (not exactly) TorONno. I discovered that folks from Vancouver pronounce their city's name Vanv-CUE-ver...kind of like the word cue added on to Van and er. I also noticed that people tend to say "hey" here in place of the allegedly Canadian "eh" (The Brits probably got us started on that one) I guess when you grow up next to a country like the US and all its colourful accents, you don't notice the ones in your own country. BTW...folks in parts of Ontario and probably other parts of Canada also have the plural of "you" which is of course "yous".

Although my french is very pathetic, I can tell a Quebecois from a New Brunswicker from an Ontarian by the french accent as well. And there is no such thing as one Newfoundland accent...there is an accent for each region of that province. Very cool

It is interesting the way a language can develop isn't it.

fred950 · #10 10-09-2003, 07:14 PM

Another piont to concider: "old" English (as before the influence of William the Conquorer) resemles modern German more than it resembles modern Egnlish.