"Whenever" and "Seen"

[finn's mom]

A problem I have with y'all is when people write it and spell it ya'll.

Same here! I'm all right with the actual phrase, it's a contraction of you all and makes sense to me, even if it does sound a bit hick (I say it, so I don't mean that in a bad way). I personally think it's charming, and always have. I also like you's (youse, however you spell it) and even you'uns (again, no idea how you'd spell that, haha).

But, it does bug me when it's spelled ya'll.

[kokopup]

I

have a friend who took classes for radio broadcasting. Two things she had to learn to say were "W" with three syllables - since it's in radio call letters ... you're listening to double-U BBM AM in Chicago. And the other one was "hundred" -- not hunnerd ... this is one-hundred-point-seven on the FM dial

.

I have found that for the most part the only people that actively try to lose their southern accent are those going into acting or broadcast. The mistake made by many, out of the south, is thinking that a slow southern accent means slow thinking or lack of education. I only have a BS but all the Dr's and PHD's that i know still have their accents and probably say Y'all , Fixin and tumped.

I liked a line from The song 'My Homes is Alabama" by Alabama

Oh I'll speak my Southern English just as natural as I please I'm in the heart of Dixie, Dixie's in the heart of me

I spent a lot of my working life out of the south, in other parts of the world, but always considered it home. The South is where I ended up retiring. In case you haven't noticed I love the south, the people, and all the quirks here in.

[smokey the elder]

This is a neat thread! A lot of the things people see as problems with grammar, spelling, etc. are probably the same thing people observed 500 years ago. Languages change, take in loan words, coin words, lose words. Look at the syntax for Middle English vs. Modern English; you'll think you're reading German, for example. Should people be careful, especially in written language? Sure. But I have a guilty pleasure in finding out what new words make it into various dictionaries each year!