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Y'all
''Y'all'' (pronounced ) is a contraction of '' you'' and ''all'', sometimes combined as ''you-all''. ''Y'all'' is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also appears in some other English varieties, including African-American English, South African Indian English and Sri Lankan English. It is usually used as a plural second-person pronoun, but whether it is exclusively plural is a perennial subject of discussion. History ''Y'all'' is a contraction of ''you all''. The spelling ''you-all'' in second-person plural pronoun usage was first recorded in 1824. The earliest two attestations with the actual spelling ''y'all'' are from 1856, and in the '' Southern Literary Messenger'' (published in Richmond, Virginia) in 1858.Parker, David B. "Y'All: Two Early Examples." ''American Speech'' 81.1 (2006): 110-112. . Although it appeared in print sporadically in the second half of the nineteenth centur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thou
The word ''thou'' () is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word '' you'', although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (). ''Thou'' is the nominative form; the oblique/ objective form is ''thee'' (functioning as both accusative and dative); the possessive is ''thy'' (adjective) or ''thine'' (as an adjective before a vowel or as a possessive pronoun); and the reflexive is ''thyself''. When ''thou'' is the grammatical subject of a finite verb in the indicative mood, the verb form typically ends in ''-(e)st'' (e.g., "thou goest", "thou do(e)st"), but in some cases just ''-t'' (e.g., "thou art"; "thou shalt"). Originally, ''thou'' (in , ) was simply the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun '' ye'', derived from an ancient Indo-European root. In Middle English, ''thou'' was sometimes represented with a scribal abbreviation that put a small "u" over the le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the spoken and written forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters and sounds. In linguistic analysis, contractions should not be confused with crasis, abbreviations and initialisms (including acronyms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in layman’s terms. Contraction is also distinguished from morphological clipping, where beginnings and endings are omitted. The definition overlaps with the term portmanteau (a linguistic '' blend''), but a distinction can be made between a portmanteau and a contraction by noting that contractions are formed from words that would otherwise appear together in sequence, such as ''do'' and ''not'', whereas a portmanteau word is formed by combining two or more existing words that all relate to a singular concept that the portmanteau describes. English English has a number of cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
You'uns
''Yinz'' (see below for other spellings) is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in Western Pennsylvania English. It is most prominent in Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the cultural region known as Appalachia, located within the geographical region of the Appalachians. History and usage ''Yinz'' is a derivation from the original Scots-Irish forms "Yin(s)" (meaning 'One(s)) and related contractions of ''you ones'', ''yous ones'' and ''ye 'uns'', a form of the second-person plural that is commonly heard in Scotland, Ulster and parts of Ireland and Northern England. In the first- and third-person, standard English speakers use distinct pronouns to denote singular and plural. In the first person, for example, speakers use the singular ''I'' and the plural ''we''. However, the second-person pronoun ''you'' performs a double duty since it is both the singular form and the plural form. Crozier (1984) suggests that during the 19th century, when many Irish-speakers swi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not consider them to form a single class, in view of the variety of functions they perform cross-linguistically. An example of a pronoun is "you", which can be either singular or plural. Sub-types include personal pronoun, personal and possessive pronouns, reflexive pronoun, reflexive and reciprocal pronoun, reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronoun, relative and interrogative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns. The use of pronouns often involves anaphora (linguistics), anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an antecedent (grammar), antecedent. For example, in the sentence ''That poor man looks as if he needs a new coat'', the meaning of the pronoun ''he'' is dependent on its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammatical Person
In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically, the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others ( third person). A language's set of pronouns is typically defined by grammatical person. ''First person'' includes the speaker (English: ''I'', ''we''), ''second person'' is the person or people spoken to (English: ''your'' or ''you''), and ''third person'' includes all that are not listed above (English: ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). It also frequently affects verbs, and sometimes nouns or possessive relationships. Related classifications Number In Indo-European languages, first-, second-, and third-person pronouns are typically also marked for singular and plural forms, and sometimes dual form as well (grammatical number). Inclusive/exclusive distinction Some other languages use different classifying systems, especially in the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African-American Vernacular English
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, vocabulary, and accent features, AAVE is employed by middle-class Black Americans as the more informal and casual end of a sociolinguistic continuum. However, in formal speaking contexts, speakers tend to switch to more standard English grammar and vocabulary, usually while retaining elements of the vernacular (non-standard) accent. AAVE is widespread throughout the United States, but is not the native dialect of all African Americans, nor are all of its speakers African American. Like most varieties of African-American English, African-American Vernacular English shares a large portion of its grammar and phonology with the regional dialects of the Southern United States, and especially older Southern American English, due to the hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
You Guys
In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base , from Proto-Indo-European (second-person plural pronoun). Old English had singular, dual, and plural second-person pronouns. The dual form was lost by the twelfth century, and the singular form was lost by the early 1600s. The development is shown in the following table. Early Modern English distinguished between the plural ' and the singular '. As in many other European languages, English at the time had a T–V distinction, which made the plural forms more respectful and deferential; they were used to address strangers and social superiors. This distinction ultimately led to familiar ''thou'' becoming obsolete in modern English, although it persists in some English dialects. ''Yourself'' had de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas. As of 2000s research, its conservative and innovative (linguistics), most innovative accents include southern Appalachian English, Appalachian and certain Texan English, Texan accents. Such research has described Southern American English as the largest Dialects of North American English, American regional accent group by number of speakers. More formal terms used within American linguistics include ''Southern White Vernacular English'' and ''Rural White Southern English''. However, more commonly in the United States, the variety is recognized as a Southern accent, which technically refers merely to the Southern accent (United States), dialect's sound system, often also simply called Southern. History A diversity of Older Southern Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics, a variety, also known as a lect or an isolect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham, Marjorie and Janie Rees-Miller. (2001) "Language in social contexts." In W. O'Grady, J. Archibald, M. Aronoff and J. Rees-Miller (eds) ''Contemporary Linguistics''. pp. 537-590. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. The use of the word ''variety'' to refer to the different forms avoids the use of the term ''language'', which many people associate only with the standard language, and the term ''dialect'', which is often associated with non-standard language forms thought of as less prestigious or "proper" than the standard.Schilling-Estes, Natalies. (2006) "Dialect variation." In R.W. Fasold and J. Connor-Linton (eds) ''An Introduction to Language and Linguistics''. pp. 311-341. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Linguists speak of both s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Modern English
Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle English, in the late 15th century, to the transition to Modern English, in the mid-to-late 17th century. Before and after the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. The grammatical and orthographical conventions of literary English in the late 16th century and the 17th century are still very influential on modern Standard English. Most modern readers of English can understand texts written in the late phase of Early Modern English, such as the '' King James Bible'' and the works of William Shakespeare, and they have greatly influenced Modern English. Texts from the earlier phase of Early Modern English, suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozarks
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portion of northern Arkansas and most of the southern half of Missouri, extending from Interstate 40 in Arkansas, Interstate 40 in central Arkansas to Interstate 70 in Missouri, Interstate 70 in central Missouri. There are two mountain ranges in the Ozarks: the Boston Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma, as well as the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri. Wahzhazhe Summit (formerly known as Buffalo Lookout), is the highest point in the Ozarks at , and is located in the Boston Mountains, in the westernmost part of Newton County, Arkansas, east of Boston, Arkansas, Boston, Madison County, Arkansas. Geologically, the area is a broad dome (geology), dome with the exposed core in the ancient St. Francois Mountains. The Ozarks cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walt Wolfram
Walt Wolfram ( ; born February 15, 1941) is an American sociolinguist specializing in social and ethnic dialects of American English. He was one of the early pioneers in the study of urban African American English through his work in Detroit in 1969. He is the William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University. Since the 1960s, Wolfram has authored or co-authored more than 20 books and more than 300 articles on variation in American English. He was an active participant in the 1996 debate surrounding the Oakland Ebonics controversy, supporting the legitimacy of African American English as a systematic language system. In addition to African American English, Wolfram has written extensively about Appalachian English, Puerto Rican English, Lumbee English, and many other dialects of North Carolina, particularly those of rural, isolated communities such as Ocracoke Island. Biography Wolfram was born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1941. His p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
