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 don't believe that a single person ever in history sees these kinds of posts and thinks "you're right, I've been an utter prick to other people online but now some one has suggested that we're all more respectful.....OMG....they're right!!"

Bless your heart. It's arrogant to think thus statement is true enough to even make it.

Of course "a single person" can and do change their mind after reading something. Will it happen for majority of nobs? No. But decent people who're otherwise stupid enough to not realise something at first, can and do realise their wrong from this so-called "virtual-signaling" posts. They probably never tell you.

@JarByTheDoor

‘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.’

V. illuminating post but I can’t think what this para might mean in practice, slightly afraid to ask for examples in case there’s a good reason you haven’t given any😬

@YouSoundLovely @LemonLymanDotCom

Glad youse said it, couple of assumptions on this thread have been gettin right on my tits. It’s great when posters combine insight and articulacy with their vernacular/ dialect. Nice to hear posters’ real voices and challenge the quaint (ahem) idea that regional accents are somehow synonymous with lack of intellect or education. Also not sure that the use of dialect is universally viewed as a barrier to comprehension in professional settings (never mind on an online forum).

It’s an odd saying for a British person and I think the majority of posters are from the uk. We have RP for a reason. If I speak in an RP accent 99% of the population will understand what I’m saying. If I speak with regional words I’m restricting myself to only being understood by a few.y’all is lazy speech, would you talk like that in a work meeting?

Very uneducated of you - and I'm sure you consider yourself extremely educated.

Do you think no one speaks normally (like saying Y'all) in work meetings in the US, where "Y'all" is not an everyday term?

I think the majority of posters, though we're from the UK, are educated enough to realise there are others here and if we come across an unusual term, we'll carry on or ask for clarification if we don't understand it through context atleast. That's how we continue to learn. Being from the UK and the majority here does not absolve us of being understanding and accepting of others.

However, it is a UK site so as long as US posters don't expect everyone to bow to their cultural imperialism, we'll all get on fine.

I'm not sure how US posters writing in their normal way would mean expecting ithers to - what - write in the same way?

On the contrary, I think it's the majority of UK posters who expect others to bow to their cultural imperialism and become passive aggressive when people don't recognise this, even unintentionally.

I often write (but don’t say) y’all and y’know. I’m allowed to express myself (respectfully) in writing- it’s a freedom!

Im from the deepest NW (Lancashire).

Its really cringe for British people to use US slang.

It really isn't. It's "cringe" only to people who like to "cringe" about everything. People are influenced by different things, including languages. Let them live, y'all.

It's annoying.

You see no irony in accusing the Americans of cultural imperialism in imposing language differences on us when the language in question is one we imposed on a whole continent because of our actual imperialism @MrsTerryPratchett?

I like y’all. I wouldn’t use it because I’ve got one of those impenetrable regional British accents that @iminvestednow finds so hard to understand 🙄 and I’d sound like a knob. But I like it.

The only reason I have ever noticed spelling is in the context of asking which country a poster is from, because the advice given such as in divorce will vary from UK or USA. We can agree that an awful husband is awful wherever they are from but I have no idea how benefits etc work in the USA. I have decent knowledge on DV escape routes in the UK as used to volunteer at a women’s refuge. Information needs to be correct.

Goodread1 · Today 03:34
I do prefer the beautiful English language not to be linguistic be Murdered

I know we are not here to point and laugh, yet here I am , pointing and laughing.

Muprhy's Law strikes again. Look it up.

Y'all has grown on me so much that I use it now with American friends! I mix with a lot of Americans online and they just have different ways of saying things. We often joke about how the Brits express themselves, as well! We all need to be more accepting of our differences.

I speak in RP irl but I wouldn't dream of pulling someone up on how they prefer to speak. As long as they can be understood it shouldn't matter. To be pedant about it is rude.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Americans using Americanisms. Nothing at all. But Brits using American words (gotten, diaper, bangs, sidewalk) is really bloody annoying. It's done to be cool, and I think it's really sad that people think American English is preferable to our own version. And before anyone starts saying gotten is old English, don't be ridiculous - it hasn't been used in English dialect for hundreds of years until Netflix came long and it became fashionable to say gotten.

I bloody love the American South accent. Warm, friendly, upbeat. Brits snobby about Americans are usually the self conscious type who are no fun to be around.

My daughter (3 and British) said ‘garbage truck’ the other day and DH jumped out of his skin couldn’t care less tbh, language is there to be understood, if it all merges over time and more people are on the same page then isn’t that the whole point?

I went to a professional golf tournament in Louisiana and instead of the usual "Quiet please" signs where players were teeing off, there was "Hush y'all"

You know “gotten” has been used in everyday speech in many parts of the uk though don’t you @Sarahcoggles , that it never went out of use? I mean you wouldn’t be stupid enough to assume and pronounce that everyone in the uk uses only the sage words as you would you? 😬

I await you telling me off for saying mom instead of mum in that case.

*same

Remarking on differences in speech isn't intrinsically nasty, just depends how you do it.

Personally, I hate seeing "y'all" coming from a British person. It's affected. And observation has shown me that people who use it tend to be steeped in American culture etc and don't really grasp that their culture isn't ours in the UK. Different places, different histories.

I've read things by young Brits implying we used to have racially segregated public loos (never had those), that racially mixed marriage was illegal here (no, it wasn't), that we have an active & powerful 'religious right' (we realy don't), and then all the George Floyd & 'taking the knee' stuff, as though Floyd was killed by cops in Tonbridge Wells or somewhere. Yes, we have our own problems but they are different from American ones.

So, when I hear or read a "y'all" from a British person, it acts as a kind of barometer to treat with caution whatever might emerge next from that individual.

Ah yes, language. That famously static entity.

American English, ironically, has evolved to a lesser degree than British English, which in itself found it’s origins in what is now Germany and Denmark, before being heavily influenced by Latin and French (amongst others) .

Others may have raised this too, not read everything here, but lots of US words are words commonly used in Britain a long time ago. Words such as diaper & closet spring to mind, both can be found in novels from Jane Austen's era. Why we stopped using them would be interesting to know.

I read 1984 recently. It was written in 1948. Orwell uses "diaper". (Not as a Newspeak word, just in the course of his standard descriptive language).

I like “y’all” but prefer “yous”

"The plural of y'all is y'all"

I thought that y'all already was a plural, in that it meant "you plural"?

How does it have a singular?

This is how I feel about it. I see people on MN writing “wanna” and “gonna” and it just jars. I know a lot of people pronounce it like that in informal speech, but to actually type it like that… it seems like more effort to do that than to actually just get it right in the first place.

It’s the same with “like”. An annoying number of people punctuate with it in conversations, but I see that as a sort of verbal tic. When they actually write “She claims we’re best friends but I haven’t seen her in like six months”, it seems deliberately affected. I get how “like” can slip out while you’re talking, but surely it actually takes a conscious effort to add it in where it doesn’t need to be?