this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 104 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Texas does not have a monopoly on y'all. Y'all is collective, both as a noun, and as ownership. Y'all is Southern for Comrade.

[–] DrQuint@lemm.ee 32 points 1 year ago

Comrade

W'all

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I refuse to accept Texas' claim on y'all. Its a word collectively owned by everyone south of the mason-dixon line and I will fight to the death over this.

Signed, floridaman

[–] ilex@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Everyone gets y'all. It fills the dumb gap in English where the plural of you is you. Now if we could only get a singular neutral 3rd for people that isn't also the plural.

E: Or we could start pronouncing They singular like latchkey, for a thee sound. So we can get fun words like they's (thees). It will also make English even more confusing for newbies. What's not to love?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's also second person plural (or singular), second person is always ungendered.

First and second person, plural and singular are never gendered: I, you, we, you / y'all / all y'all. The only pronouns that are gendered are the third person singular: he / she / it. Third person plural (they) is also ungendered.

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[–] nednobbins@lemm.ee 38 points 1 year ago (6 children)

“You” is also ungendered. There seems to be a common idea that English is missing a second person plural. We have one, it’s “you”. We just stopped using the second person singular. That’s what all those variations of “thee, thou, thy” etc were.

“Y’all” would be a superpluralization. If that’s still not enough we also have the ultraplural form of, “all y’all”

[–] pythonoob@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Y'all is exclusive. All y'all is inclusive.

If I walk into a party in a house and a group of my friends are there and I say 'what are y'all doing here?', I'm only talking to my friends.

If I walk into my own house and there's a party there and I say 'what are all y'all doing here?' I'm addressing everyone of the hoodlums in my house.

[–] Art3sian@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

We’re very inclusive in Australia also.

‘G’day you bunch of cunts’ means hello to everyone male, female, known and unknown.

We’re very polite over here.

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[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

That’s why conservatives have started to say yim’all and yer’all in order needlessly gender the expression. Can’t believe these folks sometimes.

Edit: 😂

[–] GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbt 8 points 1 year ago

Really? I've never heard that and I'm in Texas

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[–] Tandybaum@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] BigDiction@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)
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[–] Steve0Greatness@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is another reason I really should switch to Linux.

[–] geogle@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's the year of the Linux desktop, Y'all.

[–] netburnr@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thems fightin words.

[–] Vaginal_blood_fart@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's actually a contraction from old English or Scots and has been around since 1631. The hicks are using socialist words that aren't theirs.

[–] totallynotarobot@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

(The South had a significant surge of Scottish immigrants)

(They're a fuckin "liberal" monarchy.)

[–] mycroft@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Y'all is the best pronoun.

It's second person can be used singular or plural, and the difference is all contextual.

It's ungendered and it's makes almost anything feel "more fun."

[–] Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For those of you who aren't woke yet, I just made a fresh pot of coffee.

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmmm, fresh pot ! Thanks, I'll have two ounces

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[–] gongonzabarfarbin@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Y'all Texans can go to hell for trying to claim y'all.

  • Signed a Louisianan

P.s. your El Paso 857 sign can go right to hell too.

Arkansasan here. That's about right. God damned Texans.

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[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The onlie trans community uses y'all a lot. And howdy and haiii :3

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[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Y'all was created to serve a completely artificial problem.

English has second person singular pronouns, but for some dumbfuck reason we've deprecated them. It's still maintained in the standard for compatibility with legacy literature but not recommended for new works. If thou talk'st this way, thy speech comes off as archaic/shakesperian/biblical. So we use the second person plural for everything. But this removes the ability to encode context on how many thou art addressing. "You! Go put that fire out." Are you talking to an individual in a group or the whole group?

So the American south turned "you" into the singular form and invented "you all" contracted to "y'all" for the plural form.

Now we just need to fix the first person plural problem, ie "We've just won the lottery!" Does "we" include the listener, or not? English doesn't encode that information; "we" don't have different words for "myself the speaker and the listener(s) and perhaps others" and "Myself the speaker, others, but not the listener."

[–] swab148@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The first person plural of we is we'uns.

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[–] ilex@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

y'all is second person plural. First and Second person aren't gendered. Therefore, I is also woke

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 8 points 1 year ago

OMG yes! We must make this a thing, make the right speak in caveman to fit their troglodyte nature! Lol

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not even in America amd I use y'all. So it's clearly not Texan.

[–] eee@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

I'm not even in the UK and I speak English.

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

From now on, my pronouns are yall

[–] Wereduck@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I started using y'all years ago due to its ungenderedness, in part from being in queer spaces. Walking into a room of trans women and enbies and saying "you guys" felt weird.

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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

You lot? I use you lot in place of y'all, because I can't bring myself to contract you and all together.

[–] seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That sounds rude, though. Like "you people".

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[–] danknodes@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Checkmate, nobody

[–] Haus@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

As is Pennsyltucky's "Y'inz."

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