Something terrible has happened. I had resisted for over ten years. I thought I was immune. But a couple of months ago it started to happen… Y’all entered my vocabulary.
I honestly don’t know how or why it happened. I just heard it come out of my mouth one day. And then I typed it in an email without even realizing it. What the hell?!
I find this disturbing for several reasons:
1. I’m not from Texas.
2. I vowed to myself, when we decided to move to Texas that I would NOT change how I spoke. I’m from the Midwest, dammit! When I was growing up, some cousins moved to Texas. Inside of a year they had acquired very noticeable accents and were y’alling us every other sentence. It was baffling, to say the least.
3. Is y’all a “gateway word”? Is y’all the marijuana of Texas slang? What’s next? Ustacould? Fixin? Ahhhhhhh!!!
Maybe if I just use it a bunch, I can get it out of my system. What do y’all think about that? Will y’all quit reading my blog because I keep referring to y’all as y’all? Do y’all realize that I have used the word y’all eleven times so far? Okay, I think that did it. Let’s hope so. Y’all have a great weekend! Crap! That was the last one, I promise. (Who am I kidding? That might not be the last one. Haven’t you heard? Marijuana is addictive.)
40 Days Of 
Posted by Traci B on October 22, 2010 at 10:37 am
Y’all isn’t limited to Texas. It’s a southern thing. I’m from/live in Louisiana & I probably don’t go an hour without saying y’all. We say fixin a lot too! It may annoy some people but those of us from the south find it endearing. I will definitely continue to read if you continut to use it.
Posted by 40daysof on October 22, 2010 at 11:59 am
Traci,
Thanks for the southern support! 🙂
Posted by Charlene Follis on October 23, 2010 at 9:37 pm
I love saying y’all.
Posted by 40daysof on October 24, 2010 at 10:47 pm
They’d run you out of Houston if you didn’t. 🙂
Posted by Jesse on October 24, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I think it took me about 48 hours to begin using y’all once we moved to Texas. I regret that I never picked up “bless his/her heart”. Haven’t you noticed how in the south, you can say anything about anyone but if you add “bless her heart” at the end, it doesn’t sound snarky?! 🙂
Posted by 40daysof on October 24, 2010 at 10:48 pm
I’m glad the you never picked that one up. The “bless her heart ladies” scare the crap out of me!!!
Posted by Megan (Best of Fates) on October 25, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I’ve never lived anyplace where people actually said “y’all” but I think if I did I would succumb in roughly 6 seconds!
Posted by Kim on October 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Ahh I have lived in Texas my whole life, and I never realized how much everyone resists this phrase until I was in my 20s.
You’re right it may be the marijuana of Texas slang! lol
Now just refer to everyone as sweetie, hun, and sugar, and you are officially converted to a Texan!
Posted by Jen on October 26, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Do you think you got some extra hits from using the word ‘marijuana’ on your blog? I’m pretty sure you did!
Posted by 40daysof on October 26, 2010 at 10:39 pm
I’m a shameless blog hussy. 😉
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