LINGUIST List 4.697

Mon 13 Sep 1993

Disc: Y'all, Uptalk

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. "Anne M Loring-1", Re: 4.686 Y'all
2. Miriam Meyerhoff, Uptalk/HRTs

Message 1: Re: 4.686 Y'all

Thanks to Anne Gilman for picking up on "y'all". Here in Minnesota well
north of the Mason-Dixon Line, "y'all"-sayers are few and far between (so
are "youse"-sayers, but that's a different story). Finding "ya'll [sic] come
back" in writing is a poignant reminder of how far we are from those who
use "y'all" (SPELLED CORRECTLY!!!) unaffectedly and daily. It's an
example of people in one dialect area attempting to take on the
characteristics of
another; a parallel is the seasonal denizens of the Renaissance Festival
attempting to sound Renaissance-y (they do manage to sound like modern
Midwesterners trying to sound like actors they've heard doing Shakespeare).

A nut about spelling,
Anne (that's with an 'e', y'all) Loring

Weighing in with a comment on the high rising terminal declarative, from a
New Zealand perspective (which all Australians know they copied from us).

David Britain has done a recent analysis of distribution and function of
HRTs in NZ English, and includes a review of research on the strategy. Those
interested could check out his paper in _Language Variation and Change_
1992.