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What Ever Happened To "Y'all"?by Gordon Darr Growing up in New York and Michigan, it never occurred to me, when visiting relatives in Texas, that I had an accent. Only after going to college in Texas, then living there and then Tennessee and Georgia during ten years, did I come to realize that my accent was as interesting to my Southern friends, as mine was to them. My marriage to a native of Rutherford County in 1994 further cemented my conviction that, not only was the Michigan accent interesting, but it was even goofy-sounding to others. One of the most memorable lessons I learned about the Southern idiom had to do with the word "y'all". I would get chastised for calling a group of people "you guys" if the group included women. "There are women in the group - not all guys" they would say. And they were right! I embraced "y'all", convinced that the South had that one right. But I began to encounter things that troubled me. Natives of Metro Atlanta who would say "It's a good thing the Northerners moved down here. That's why we have such a good economy". Native Southerners, succumbing to "speech training" requirements of their North and foreign-based employers. Others who seemed embarrassed when teased about their accents, and tried to hide it (as a Northerner, I want to say that I can pick out a fake Yankee accent with relative ease). But "y'all", I thought, had the upper ground to go nationwide someday. But then, to my horror, I began hearing native southerners refer to groups of people (including women) as "you guys"! From relatives of my wife, to even my proud Texas mother, "y'all" was losing ground! What?! Then, I almost lost all hope. When visiting downtown Rutherfordton last summer, I and my family stopped into one particular shop, where the manager-owner was working at the front. She was a very nice young lady, with a beautiful Southern accent. And then she said it. That's right "How are you guys today?" She even pronounced "guys" with a Yankee long-I. I once heard a preacher say that the end of the Southern way of life began with the invention of air conditioning and the television, for these two devices got people off of the front porch, where generations would while away the hours telling stories. That may be true -- but real evidence that something important has been lost is when y'all starts to drop from the vocabulary. Enough is enough! Come on, y'all! Bring back "ya'll"! ©2001 Gordon Darr
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©2001-2008 Digital Essentials
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