Our friend @Mzkeekz found a language web site http://languagesoftheworld.info/ which turns out to be fun. It is about English dialects, among other things. There are also articles about Romance languages, Latvian, Russian, Sanskrit -- the gamut.
Maps: The Harvard Dialect Survey, conducted by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder, is a compilation of regional American differences. Researcher Joshua Katz of NC State University used it to construct maps. [ link ] Do you say soda or pop? grosery or groshery (grocery)? reely or rilly (really)? law-yer or loy-er? ant or ahnt (aunt)? Katz explores these questions.
you guys | 42.53% of respondents |
you | 24.82% |
y’all | 13.99%, chiefly in the South |
you all | 12.63% |
yous or youse | 0.67% |
yins | 0.37%, chiefly in Appalachia |
you ‘uns | 0.20%, also chiefly in Appalachia |
you lot | 0.18% |
some other term | 4.62% |
The deepest divide
Among the regional differences, the use of y'all is the deepest and most obvious linguistic divide in America. It separates Southerners from non-Southerners. I have a gut revulsion when I hear the word y'all. I can't help it. I grit my teeth and anticipate something flagrantly anti-science or misogynistic or racist.
Y'all know Obama is a communist muslim foreigner.
Y'all know climate change is just a liberal hoax.
Y'all know homosexuality is a sin.
I apologize if you belong to the y'all persuasion. There is nothing stupid or illiterate in the word y'all. I know that it is a fully grammatical element of language. But my experience has been reinforced many times.
Take This Quiz
It is a brief language survey of your regionalisms, grosery or groshery, reely or rilly, and at the end, it will produce a map (poorly designed as the colors red and blue are indistinguishable by one man in twelve) -- a map of everyone in the USA who talks like you. In my case, it located me exactly:
Again, if you feel offended by my views, sod off.
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