How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk (2013) (opens in new tab)

(nytimes.com)

16 pointsrohan40410y ago11 comments

11 comments

11 comments · 5 top-level

Zarathustra3010y ago· 2 in thread

Wait.. "cot" and "caught" have different pronunciations?

I can imagine people from the south of England pronouncing them differently, so in more southern American accents I wouldn't be surprised to hear "cot" as a very quick, almost glottal sound, and "caught" with a long drawn out vowel.

As a Scot, I naturally pronounce them both identically. I'm just amazed there are people for whom "Mary", "Merry" and "Marry" are the same, nevermind utterly different!

Of course this test is not going to tell me anything useful... :)

edit: Sadly "gutties" was not an option for gym shoes, "ginger" was not an option for carbonated beverages. I'm either from Miami or Boston, and definitely not from Detroit. But really I'm from Glasgow :)

collyw10y ago

I am from Glasgow as well, but I pronounce them differently. Pretty much how you describe them in your fist sentence.

comrade110y ago· 2 in thread

Why doesn't English have a plural you like German? Do the other Germanic languages have plural you?

switch00710y ago

"You" is plural. According to [1] "you" and "ye" were plural (and "thou" (nominative), "thee" (accusative), "thy" (gen) and "thine" (gen) were singular). Fascinating!

[1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22194/did-englis...

brc10y ago

The collective 'you' is the same as the singular. Just like fish and sheep.

It's incorrect to create a collective 'you' in the same way it's incorrect to say 'sheep'. But English is open source, so whatever.

Ironically, I'm from New Orleans apparently.

spants10y ago· 1 in thread

As a Londoner, I'm apparently based on the West Coast.

breakingcups10y ago

As someone from Europe, so am I.

comrade110y ago· 1 in thread

I went through the questions and when I first saw the results I was impressed, but then I realized the "most similar" covered about 75% of the u.s. For my results it basically just made the confederate states least similar and everywhere else dark blue. Guess I'm a Yankee.

update10y ago

I got 'San Jose/Fremont, CA' & 'Richmond, VA' guess I'm All American.

owenversteeg10y ago

Two of my three "least similar" were places (very near where) I've lived, and two of my three "most similar" were places I've never even come close to.

Funny enough, the city apparently #1 most similar to my speech pattern is Overland Park, Kansas, which is hilarious as I doubt I've ever been within 400 miles of there.

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