I mean, 'you all'.... It's hardly 'supercallafrajalisticachesmealladocious' now is it?
2006-07-28 00:45:31 · 29 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
It's not a question of lazy. "Y'all" is a different word from "you all". The former is a 2nd person pronoun in some (not all, or even most) dialects of American English, in some singular and in others plural. The latter is a phrase. It is no more a sign of laziness than using "usted" in Spanish which started out as a contraction of "vuestra merced" ("your mercy"). Portuguese did something very similar, although the forms are different. Both French and Italian contract "le" or "la" ("the") to "l'" before vowel sounds.
And Latin contracted "non volo" (I don't know) to "nolo". Contractions are used all the time in all kinds of languages.
2006-07-28 01:10:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually, American English saved the English language from going the way of German and Scandinavian languages. The American dialects that you seem to loathe so much has helped English to adapt, and has made English a more dynamic and beautiful language.
Also, there is a bit of racism here as well. The southern dialect is heavily influenced by the soft and beautiful sounds of Africans who came to this country from English and Dutch slave ships. Though you may not like it, Americans are keeping the English language diverse, and diversity of a language is the best indicator of survival.
Furthermore, if you don't like the way we speak English, many of us are know speaking Spanish. So I think maybe since you think us Americans are so lazy, we should just choose another language that makes more grammatical and orthographic sense.
2006-07-28 00:56:33 · answer #2 · answered by travieso78702 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What's often misinterpreted as laziness in speech is actually speakers being efficient. Speech is a matter of economy...you need to get information across and the more economically you can convey the information the more information you can get across. Many contractions in English are standard: I'm, you're, isn't, could've etc.
Y'all is one of a number of dialectal variations including you guys, you lot & youse which attempts to compensate for the fact that English has lost the historical distinction between thou (2nd person singular) and you (2nd person plural), leaving just "you" to fulfil both roles.
However pronouns such as y'all although common enough in speech are not considered "standard" and so are often considered improper or lazy although they're actually very useful when you need to avoid ambiguity.
2006-07-28 04:14:21 · answer #3 · answered by duprie37 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I personally don't use "y'all". I find it is really most common in southern and african american speech. I don't believe though, it is necessarily used out of laziness. I think it is used without a second thought because it has been used so much and for so long, people don't stop to think a word they've heard their entire lives may be incorrect.
2006-07-28 01:03:08 · answer #4 · answered by junebug 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Two sentences with different meanings:
"Are y'all with me" indicates you're asking us, collectively, whether we are with you. More of an invitation than a question, and any or all of us can respond to or ignore you.
"Are you all with me" asks whether anyone is NOT with you. A more specific question.
It's a pity that standard English doesn't have a second person plural, but it's better than the thuggish "youse guys" some people use in the Northeastern US.
2006-07-31 18:59:39 · answer #5 · answered by fuschia14minuit 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Native speakers in any language make certain structures shorter by omitting vowels and even entire words. This happens all over the world, the French and the Spanish do it even more often than Americans!
2006-07-28 00:55:21 · answer #6 · answered by Foxy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is an accent more than any thing a lot of english people can not use the language properly either!
Try and say beer can with sounding like a Jamaican saying bacon!
2006-07-28 00:49:17 · answer #7 · answered by Macka 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are lazy to believe all Americans use the term. It's used by a lot of Southerners and African Americans. Kind of a cultural thing. I don't use it. So there!
2006-07-28 00:48:03 · answer #8 · answered by viclyn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it's a different country and that is how culture makes a country unique. It would be incredibly boring for everyone to speak the same type of English, wouldn't it?
2006-07-28 09:23:53 · answer #9 · answered by roxya153 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not laziness--it's a speech pattern. It's almost a tradition in the South. And by the way, it supercalifragilisticexpialidocius.
2006-07-28 00:50:15 · answer #10 · answered by cross-stitch kelly 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋