[geeks] Y'all

Chris Hedemark chris at yonderway.com
Wed Nov 20 17:25:20 CST 2002


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On Wednesday, November 20, 2002, at 05:16 PM, Jonathan C. Patschke 
wrote:

> I could've sworn that "ain't" is in the OED[0] as an oudated 
> contraction
> of "am not", with all the other uses it has gained being incorrect.

That's the funny thing about the English language; words that don't 
exist in the dictionary will over time if adopted in common use.

"Y'all" comes to mind as one of the better examples, I think.  "You 
all" contracted to "y'all" is a great time saver.  It is used 
universally by all races and classes of people in the south.  It has 
become pervasive through the ghettos and inner cities of the north, 
which means rebellious white middle class teens are the next to adopt 
it.  Before long, the word will be taught in grammar school all over 
the nation (and perhaps beyond, to the rest of the English speaking 
world) as an example of a proper contraction.

Chris Hedemark
Hillsborough, NC
http://yonderway.com


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (Darwin)

iD8DBQE93BnlYPuF4Zq9lvYRAqVwAJ4rBTzlm59wyOusO6IGJ16Q2a7e3QCfZ6Ga
NhgQJS1/W7D3BSW6XSBF5Uk=
=JI+F
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----



More information about the geeks mailing list