(no subject)

[cyrano]

Posted as a query for the southerners on my list (both of them?):

If somebody types it out as ya'll, have they ever actually spoken the word? Or is this just one of those things where people can't spell?

Comments

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

All y'all jabberin' on on this makes me wonder if the great language maven, William Safire has ever tackled the subject.

[mostuff.livejournal.com]

He mentions it as an example of "Slurvian" or slurred speech:

"Slurvian is not limited to New York City. The most famous example of slurred speech embodied in dialect is the Southern y'all, which has its equivalent in New York Slurvian alluhyuz. (That's if the emphasis is on the all; if the speaker wishes to stress the plural you, the phrase becomes alluhyooz.) And in California, g'yonit signifies "get on it," meaning "get moving." "

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000917mag-onlanguage.html

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've only been here for ten years, but not a single person has yet told me to g'yonit.

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

I'm a native, and I never knew g'yonit.

(Though the whole Slurvian thing is fascinating.)