JohnEric
Guardian of the Fuzzies
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2008
- Messages
- 119
As a result of a recent conversation with another member of this board, I have been asked to pass on my perspective on the term "y'all", and why I consider it to be of acceptable use.
Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Reagan was president, I was in college. One of the required courses was Greek (in fact, all of the courses for that year were based in Greek civilization, so the language course was, naturally, Greek), and my teacher explained to us the virtues of the word "y'all".
Many other languages make a distinction between the second person singular and the second person plural, including Greek. However, in English, the same word ("you") serves as both singular and plural in the second person. Therefore, one does not know if "you" refers to a single person, or multiple persons.
In order to properly translate the assigned passages, he would have us use "y'all" or "you all" in the case of the second person plural, in order to confirm that we had a proper understanding of what we were translating. Although it was not considered common usage, it was necessary in order to be precise. (However, contrary to popular rumor at the time, the last phrase in Plato's Republic was NOT an utterance by Socrates, "Y'all come back now, hear?" That phrase does not appear until Timaeus, as a reference to the forthcoming work, Critias.)
Since this particular teacher received Large Amounts Of Money to pass on this knowledge to us, I have to assume that he knew what he was talking about. Therefore, I consider it to be an acceptable term for English usage, and it would not be appropriate to condemn a person for its appropriate use.
As a side note, the term "ain't" was originally an acceptable contraction for "am not", although again, it is not in common usage. An example of appropriate usage is found in the phrase by that famous philosopher, Bugs Bunny, when he utters: "Ain't I a stinker?"
Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Reagan was president, I was in college. One of the required courses was Greek (in fact, all of the courses for that year were based in Greek civilization, so the language course was, naturally, Greek), and my teacher explained to us the virtues of the word "y'all".
Many other languages make a distinction between the second person singular and the second person plural, including Greek. However, in English, the same word ("you") serves as both singular and plural in the second person. Therefore, one does not know if "you" refers to a single person, or multiple persons.
In order to properly translate the assigned passages, he would have us use "y'all" or "you all" in the case of the second person plural, in order to confirm that we had a proper understanding of what we were translating. Although it was not considered common usage, it was necessary in order to be precise. (However, contrary to popular rumor at the time, the last phrase in Plato's Republic was NOT an utterance by Socrates, "Y'all come back now, hear?" That phrase does not appear until Timaeus, as a reference to the forthcoming work, Critias.)
Since this particular teacher received Large Amounts Of Money to pass on this knowledge to us, I have to assume that he knew what he was talking about. Therefore, I consider it to be an acceptable term for English usage, and it would not be appropriate to condemn a person for its appropriate use.
As a side note, the term "ain't" was originally an acceptable contraction for "am not", although again, it is not in common usage. An example of appropriate usage is found in the phrase by that famous philosopher, Bugs Bunny, when he utters: "Ain't I a stinker?"
You are a sweetie......Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course you didn't have to stay up late to do this but I will tell myself that your "babies" were up playing and that was keeping you up anyway 
or you get this ...******** (and I censored myself) 
