Disrespectful to make fun of another poster because they speak and write differently because they are from the US

[StopThinkBeforeYouJudge]

Just that really.
I saw a post and within it another poster decided it was annoying the way another poster had written the word "y'all".Plenty of Southerners,not just Texans used this word daily.It was really strange how she kept on about it and even said we "y'all " sayers shouldn't even write it out here on mumsnet. Personally I'm from the state that has lots of tornadoes fyi.
But I've never seen anyone nor would I ever dare tell another poster how to spell words or how to put them on paper,EVER.
It's not a UK,US thing at all.
I just think we need to respect each other more.
I'm aware there will be some that come for me on here,but I will still continue to encourage us all to respect each other more.

I do prefer the beautiful English language not to be linguistic be Murdered

It does grate on my nerves unfortunately

I agree with all of this I’m afraid. Also there is a certain kind of person not from the US that likes to use US inflected slang and it’s try hard and cringey to many ears (including my own), the original poster was probably aiming more at that cohort.

We colonials still drink our tea with salt water, don’t you know

Which English language would that be?

Last time I looked, more Americans speak English than British people do, and apparently RP is necessary to make British English intelligible.

That's hilarious not only because ya'll is pretty much universally understood so it doesn't apply but also because that is a resounding YES. Yes I would use it in a business meeting. My boss and her boss use it all the time on and off the clock and yes at a formal meeting. In Texas and in many US states. If ya'll are bothered by it that much don't visit the United states because we don't get hung up over things like this.

Crazy I thought the British would be more relaxed and wordly considering you have the privilege of being within driving distance of so many different countries and diverse languages and cultures.

But it seems you guys still have a lot of hang ups about what is "proper" as they say. How very disappointing.

Well you might want to take that issue up with your ancestors because if they hadn't banished a bunch of prisoners to Australia and agreed to ship a bunch of colonials to North America then you might have once had a say but now you don't so it's technically ya'lls fault that we are like this! 😂

So I hope you remember that everytime ya'll listen to this linguistic murder! 🤠

Its really cringe for British people to use US slang. I am Irish, have a lot of ties to the US and have spent a lot of time there over the last 30 years, and anyone trying to chuck a ‘y’all’ in to a conversation here would have to leave the country as they would be ridiculed relentlessly. That’s what people on this site tend to hate, understandably, because most of the non Americans who use it are fairly annoying. There defo is an anti American vibe from some posters on here but the reality is most people dgaf about Americans using American slang. It’s the try hards that wind people up.

I'm not American but I live in the US and I love language. American English has a richness and a nuance to it that isn't appreciated as much as it should be by the British.

I love language too and there are plenty of rich versions of English around the world. I love Australian English and if you want rich, Indian English is steeped in rich vocabulary.

I'd say however, that American English does not have a nuance to it that British English does. Nowhere near. British English oozes nuance, as many North Americans who come to live here find out. What Brits say isn't quite what that string of words literally means in a great many cases.

Interestingly one exception would be the American South's "Bless your heart" which appeared earlier on here. Apparently genuinely. Who can tell when it's written though! 😂

I always think: speak up on the thread itself! I've seen breath-taking rudeness from people who are too ignorant to understand that not everyone on this site has English as their first language, or that regional variations like youse and Mom are perfectly normal within the UK let alone anywhere else. So I say something at the time.

Starting a thread to tell everyone to respect each other or "be kind" will just get people's backs up I'm afraid.

I might use y’all on here now. It’s weird it bothers anyone. I did think of spelling my username the British way in case I got told I was wrong but thought fuck it. 😂

This is a load of Anglo-centric nonsense 🤣
‘American English does not have a nuance to it that British English does. Nowhere near. British English oozes nuance, as many North Americans who come to live here find out.’ Have you considered you don’t understand or pick up on the nuances in American English? Of course North Americans have to work out the different nuances in the language that English people use or kiwis or Canadians. Not all English speaking countries have the same nuances. British English has no more nuance than any other form.

This type of thread comes up frequently on MN and it's often not aimed at Americans, but regional British too. Words that commonly come under fire are jags, outwith, Mom, high school, squash, messages etc. Y'all doesn't often get a mention. And that's before we get onto the subject of accents.
There are MNers who have no concept of how language has evolved and how Americans often use words that were in usage in Britain many years ago. Also no concept of anything North of London or a seeming lack of understanding that there is more than one country in the British Isles.
As for picking people up on grammar and spelling, that's just poor manners.

y’all Is used extensively on social media as a kind of shorthand. To me
it is
‘Twitter speak’ and seems strange if you’re using it when it’s not your own way of talking. Like ‘imma’ is used a lot. I think U.K. based folk writing like this is odd. Most don’t talk like this in RL. if you’re actually American then I guess it’s different? You writing how you talk.

I have a strong regional accent but I don’t write in it though.

Is MN’s a work meeting? No, so what’s the correlation? Just because it’s foreign to you doesn’t mean that it’s lazy

I didn't see the thread you're talking about and I agree it's really rude to criticise people for the type of language they use, or even to comment on it (unless maybe it's genuinely difficult for most of the intended audience to understand, and the person posting doesn't realise it).

However… sometimes, comments might be made for reasons that are more nuanced than a simple anti-American snobbery or cliquey bullying. Or at least, those may not be intended, even if that's the effect. Spaces where minority language variants are used are often defensively guarded against the influence of more powerful variants, not because the minority variant is intrinsically better but because people perceive its existence as a distinct variant is under threat from dominant cultural forces. Since American English is the dominant variant of English online, that reaction can happen on MN, as one of the few primarily British-English places people chat online — people will make unpleasant comments about perceived dominant-variant users (who here are a minority, so really shouldn't be picked on), and sometimes even more vociferously about minority-variant users who are seen to have picked up features of the dominant variant. It's a misguided urge to defend a less culturally powerful way of speaking, and since language is often felt as a core part of someone's identity, the urge is easily triggered.

The other thing that might sometimes result in criticism of "y'all" is that it's commonly used by a particular subset of people who otherwise use British English, along with "folks", and a few other words and grammatical choices, all with a distinctly American-ish style (I'm aware "folk" and "folks" are used by some British English speakers, but it's slightly different), in a way that signals belonging to a loose social and political grouping of young, very online people with shared beliefs around politics, identity, and so on. This group tends to have some beliefs which clash with those of some MN users, so I think there may be an instinctive rising of hackles because of those associations.

I hope this doesn't come across as a defence of people who criticise others' use of the language that comes naturally to them — that's not my intention. I'm in need of sleep 😅 (which might also explain the rambling sentences that I'm struggling to corral into anything comprehensible).

I would never pull someone up on it but do find it odd when people write in regional dialects. I'm from Northern England and conversation here often include phrase like "haway"(come on), "aye" (yes), "gan" (gone) but I would never write like that, especially to a mixed audience who I know don't use those words. It does seem kind of lazy not to make sure your communication is easy to understand.

I sound daft if I say y'all, but it's perfectly comprehensible and quite useful to distinguish singular from plural you (depending on exactly where, either by you/y'all or y'all/all y'all). It's not an obscure

In Pittsburgh the plural you is yinz, but in Philadelphia it's youse.

American English isn't any less nuanced than any British dialect; it's just different.

But I recall multiple rounds on MN about "gotten"!!!

There is an actual linguistic study that has drawn the (amusing) conclusion that people who correct other people's use of language know far less about language than they think. I'll try and find a link later.

Wrt RP, actual RP, there are probably less than 100 people in the world who still use it in its original form. Not even the one who died on 8th September did if you listen to audio recordings of how she spoke 50 years ago, and how she spoke in recent years.

When people say they have an RP accent (it's only spoken, so people saying they "write" RP also don't know what they're talking about) what they mean is standard English. There are many standard Englishes, some of which are American, Australian etc. All British standard English is, is a correct use of grammar and pronunciation. It's usually limited to south east standard, for obvious reasons, but there are others.

Anybody correcting anyone's English on Mumsnet is generally suffering from a hefty and mistaken bout of superiority and it never takes long for Muphry to come along and prove it.

Is this supposed to be ironic?

Like I said, Muphry rides.

Disdain.

Good post, JarBytheDoor. I think it's more than that, though, in MN, given posters have similar conniptions over Hiberno-English (cf. recent thread on 'haitch ') and other non-Southern English variants. I see it as a remnant of colonial hubris - like the belief of a pp that RP is about being universally intelligible, when what it's mainly about is exclusivity, in the literal sense of the word. MN is full of parochialism, status anxiety and class consciousness about other things, so not really surprising that it extends to language.

I love a plural 'you'. Many many languages have them.

I think it is helpful on site you know is UK wide+ to not use local colloquialisms if you realise they are local because it won't communicate to your audience so clearly.

So e.g. writing 'I was going to do the messages' is less clear than 'doing the grocery shopping' to most of the audience.

Obviously sometimes you don't even realise your word isn't used universally, in which case that becomes a learning for all. (I had to look up 'grinds' recently on an education thread).

I suspect y'all is a bit similar; although its meaning is clear, it comes over as unusual/slang/casual so it can impact on understanding of the audience.

@iminvestednow I work for a US company and “y’all” is regularly used in meetings.

Where I'm from, the plural of you is 'ye'. I like y'all, and I love that it has it's own plural in 'all y'all'. It would sound a bit weird in my accent though, so I won't write it either. I love American Southern accents and turns of phrase, it's so soft and melodious.

As opposed to the UK’s actual imperialism?
😂😂