trwi7 wrote:bizarro wrote:MikeIsGood wrote:
I love "y'all". It's the only vernacular I've picked up, I promise y'all that
That's awesome. I live south of Nashville and in North Georgia for several years. I still use 'y'all' but it's still awkward to me. Like, I can feel my Yankee roots cringing in disbelief. Never quite fits right. But, it comes out anyway...sometimes.
My cousins moved to Nashville when they were 12 and 10 and I didn't see them for a few years and then they came up and visited and they were constantly saying y'all and still do to this day. We were laughing and said they went Southern pretty quickly.
Of course I also had cousins from Oregon and the first time we ever saw them in person they commented how funny we sounded.
And oh man when I first met my cousins from New Jersey? The dueling accents were amazing.
One of my favorite documentaries I've ever seen is the late 80's ethnographic documentary 'American Tongues'. It changed my worldview within the US. It never ceases to amaze me how large this country is and how nuanced every nook and cranny is. I swear, I've driven down meandering roads deep in the Blue Ridge mountains and the Ozarks where I couldn't tell you a word the purported English speakers were saying. I think this gets lost in the modern discourse.