So, in class we are talking about the way we wield language, and it made me thing of a childhood experience in which I was hindered by my inability to wield language. When I was younger, I lived in a small, southern town for about 11 years. In that time, I never acquired the southern accent or fully understood the lingo. For instance, I didn't realize until middle school that "reckon" meant "think" and I still don't quite understand how "fixin' to" can mean "about to."
Often times, I found that I couldn't keep up with class discussions, not because I didn't know the material, but because I didn't understand some of the language being used by the students and sometimes even the teachers in the discussions. What really made me realize just how little I knew about the place I lived in was when I took a Spanish class in high school and the teacher wrote "ya'll" on the board as one of the pronouns that we would have to learn in Spanish. For the first 10 minutes of class, I just stared at this word trying to figure out if it was a Spanish word or an English word. Then, when I raised my hand to ask what "yaee" meant, (the double "L" in Spanish is pronounced like "ya") my teacher gave me a weird look and I didn't understand why. When I pointed to the word on the board, though, he chuckled and said, "that's 'Ya'll.'" With that, I was then the one giving him a weird look as I responded, "What's 'yaaa'll'?" Thinking that I was joking he ignored my question, but after class I stayed for a few minutes to ask him again, "What is 'ya'll?'" Realizing that I legitimately didn't know, he explained it to me, but from then on, he would joke that not only was he teaching Spanish to his students, but he was also teaching English, and thus should be paid more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This story is very interesting. It shows the way language is so customary to geographic location, and even social circles. I feel like the teacher was being ignorant or just rude when he addressed, or didn't address your question. Ya'll should never be a word taught in a classroom as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteI was born in Iowa and I lived there for 12 years and when I moved to Texas yall was the first word I noticed. It always caught me by surprise when someone would use yall in a sentence. It definitely took me a long time to get used to but now I always catch myself saying it!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in St. Louis and when I moved down to Dallas I quickly recognized that everyone said y'all. I also caught on quickly to saying this. I grew up more in the suburbs and even in downtown Dallas most people don't have the country accent that people think we do. Most of the people who do have accents live out in the country.
ReplyDeleteOne thing a teacher of mine pointed out is that the word is a contraction of the words 'you all'. The word is y'all, and not ya'll. I never even used to say the word, but that has become a pet peeve of mine.
ReplyDelete