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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3139 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski - What's the Saddest Word? (and also a new song for the music club)

Y'all. It fills a very useful and otherwise unfilled grammatical role. It allows you to unambiguously address a representative of a group as a representative of that group rather than as an individual. "You keep fucking up" is a personal accusation, "y'all keep fucking up" is not. Y'all is a friend of all who have to deal with dysfunctional organizations. Many conflicts can be avoided by making clear that it is not the person you are talking to, necessarily, you are calling a fuckup. It is rarely allowed to do its thing, though, because you can't say "y'all" without sounding like an uneducated hick. Proper grammar demands making is personal or adding lengthy qualifications to every other sentence. Poor y'all, it only wants to help.





thenewgreen  ·  3139 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Nah, ya'll is a happy word. It implies a group with camaraderie. I live in the south (as I think you do too) and as a transplant from the north I held the same views of the word until I heard it used by some very smart people as a way to impart "southern-ness". I like it in the right context.

katakowsj  ·  3138 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm feeling disappointed. It's disappointing that none of us could clearly come up with one word that exemplifies sadness. What a disappointment we are. I'll just lie down and take a nap now.

Yeah, disappointed works pretty well.