http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=582 A Blog about Words and Language(s) from alphaDictionary.com Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:00:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.6 http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=582&cpage=1#comment-197308 douglas Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:05:24 +0000 http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=582#comment-197308 i greatly disagree with your claim that y'all is used all over America. but i also disagree with Lerpwl. american english speakers DO lose sleep, or at least syllables, on the second person plural. virtually everyone almost always uses an 'informal' second person plural, but the one that is most commonly used in the US by far is "you guys", which i'm sure outnumbers y'all 2 or 3-to-1. youses is used by a tiny minority of people in northeastern cities, and y'all is laughable outside of "the South". i also disagree about the demonym problem, which rarely pops up in everyday conversation (people rarely discuss other nationalities in their daily lives), whereas second person plural difficulties occur in everyday interaction constantly, especially in any type of group setting, like school or work, where "you guys" is standard fare in america. i am in full agreement about "usta" though... it's here to stay and we just have to get ustu it! i greatly disagree with your claim that y’all is used all over America. but i also disagree with Lerpwl. american english speakers DO lose sleep, or at least syllables, on the second person plural. virtually everyone almost always uses an ‘informal’ second person plural, but the one that is most commonly used in the US by far is “you guys”, which i’m sure outnumbers y’all 2 or 3-to-1. youses is used by a tiny minority of people in northeastern cities, and y’all is laughable outside of “the South”. i also disagree about the demonym problem, which rarely pops up in everyday conversation (people rarely discuss other nationalities in their daily lives), whereas second person plural difficulties occur in everyday interaction constantly, especially in any type of group setting, like school or work, where “you guys” is standard fare in america. i am in full agreement about “usta” though… it’s here to stay and we just have to get ustu it!

]]> http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=582&cpage=1#comment-180220 Lerpwl Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:35:46 +0000 http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=582#comment-180220 The lack of singular/plural distinction in English between the pronoun 'you' is an ambiguity few English speakers lose sleep over. It's true the distinction is present in some dialects 'youses' etc. but I'm pretty sure they will always remain non-standard. Much more ambiguity is present in English caused by overworked demonym nouns and adjectives eg. 'Japanese', 'Czech' etc. which could be either a noun or adjective singular or plural? The lack of singular/plural distinction in English between the pronoun ‘you’ is an ambiguity few English speakers lose sleep over. It’s true the distinction is present in some dialects ‘youses’ etc. but I’m pretty sure they will always remain non-standard. Much more ambiguity is present in English caused by overworked demonym nouns and adjectives eg. ‘Japanese’, ‘Czech’ etc. which could be either a noun or adjective singular or plural?

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