this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

We are afraid to use common greetings now? How about we all refer to each other as "carbon units"?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

Second person never has a gender in English. Saying "you" should also be fine, or "thee" if you feel like getting your quaker on.

Special requests notwithstanding - the platinum rule here is just to accommodate whatever you reasonably can.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 hours ago

How you fuckers doing, eh?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

Fwiw, second person is fine as long as there's no misgendering... It's like calling someone by their name

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

Having exported myself from the deep South to Yankee land, "Y'all have a good one!" never fails to brighten the day of someone working a cash register.

In general, folks up here really like southern politeness. They think sugar wouldn't melt in my mouth. I get stopped in stores to talk all the time. Pretty frequently, they just give me a discount. I thought Yankees were supposed to be rude, but they're actually really nice in public.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago

Youse LOL, almost lost it when I heard it one time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

"Y'all" has wider reach than this map suggests, particularly in black and queer communities.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 18 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

People where I am from call everyone "you guys" - men, women, trans, doesn't matter, everyone is just "you guys" even when it's a woman addressing a group of women.

The literal meaning isn't gender neutral, but in actual practice, it 100% is.

As for "y'all" or "you all", I don't see how it could possibly be interpreted as offensive to any gender.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

"You People" is the one to be avoided

[–] [email protected] 10 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

"howdy fuckers" is the opposite as it sounds bad on paper but in practice it goes over well (except with middle aged moms)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

"G'day cunts" goes over either extremely well or extremely poorly, with no in-between

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Ah the classic way to say hello in Australian.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Where's my fellow "yo'd'll"s at

[–] [email protected] 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Oh....you know 😏

[–] bdonvr 70 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (10 children)

"y'all" fills a legitimately useful gap the English language has. Other languages have a word like this.

Edit: also something cool I just found out, some languages have a way to disinguish "we" (you and I), and "we" (me and the rest of us, not you). It's called clusivity and is missing from European languages. Many indigenous languages of the Americas and Oceania have this, as well as Vietnamese and northern dialects of Mandarin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

English used to be like other European languages too. We had thou/thee for singular, and you/ye for plural, and for respectful singular. Eventually, people began using it as respectful singular for everyone, and so it just became singular and plural, eclipsing thou/thee. Around this time, the you/ye accusative/nominative distinction was also lost, so now we just have you.

If you're curious, the you/ye distinction worked like this: "you" was used for the subject (the doer) of the sentence, and "ye" was used for the object (the done to). you/ye are analogous to I/me.

"You come with me." (plural you)

"I come with ye." (plural ye)

As a result of the loss of thou, we also lost the conjugation of verbs related to it, like "art" instead of "are", and "-st" or "-est" for other verbs ("goest", "thinkst", etc). It used to be that "are" was only for plural pronouns, but now both "you" and "they" can be singular.

And if you're curious about what happened to "-eth", evidence suggests this was for a long time a typographic feature, and it was pronounced "-s" as it is today. It was used exactly like "-s". "He thinketh" would have been pronounced "he thinks".

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago

I mean, neither "you" nor "all" is a gendered term in any way

[–] [email protected] 10 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm from "you guys" but I've lived in "y'all" and now I'm forever team "y'all," regardless of where I'm living.

It's the best export from the south, except maybe Texas brisket and pecan pie.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I would have thought that β€œy’all” is even more so gender neutral and therefore less offensive/more accepted. It’s a contraction of β€œyou all” right?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Y'all has become my goto nowadays, up in the northeast

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Y'all is the opposite of offensive for trans people. I lived in the south for a while, and I now use y'all specifically to be inclusive. I wouldn't say "you guys" is offensive to trans women, but I would say for me and likely other trans women it briefly brings to mind being misgendered in the past, so I would call it a small kindness to ube as gender neutral as possible.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Yup, I specifically use y'all and recommend it to people (like my parents) to replace gendered phrases, and I'm not from the y'all zone.

Still up for debate, "dude" and "hun/hon".

*I'm a trans woman also

[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

As a cis male, I've exclusively been called "Hun / Hon" by waitresses and gay men.

I've not been offended by any of them.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (9 children)
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yall is the genderless southern hospitality greeting.

No bullshit no hate. Only yall

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've used y'all intentionally as a gender neutral term for years in the south.

Lately I've even seen "y'all means all" used as a pride slogan in the south.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm not from the south and use "y'all" all the time. Find it very useful for filling in a gap that English has and slightly faster than saying "you all". Its gender neutral in my opinion.

Never once thought of it as offensive.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Y'all reminds me of the bible belt. I'm not transgender but I am queer and now and then it makes me uncomfortable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Queer people who live in the bible belt still say "y'all". It literally means "you all".

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 day ago (18 children)

I’m from Australia and I’ve started calling all groups of people yall because it’s gender neutral… very unaustralian term, and I love so much the irony of iconic southern terms being used to support trans activism

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Maine I think loops back around to y’all territory…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

As someone that grew up in y'all territory in Kansas, it's wildly easy to connect to people from Maine!

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