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Britishisms invading American English


Ormond

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I've lost my drawl but not my "y'all".

I definitely think "y'all" is something that English speakers outside the American south should adopt. The lack of a distinct plural "you" is a problem in English. Here in Brooklyn some of us are partial to "youse," but I actually prefer "y'all."

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Please don't watch any Danny Dyer films; they're dire (see what I did there).
As soon as I spotted a Danny Dyer ref I thought of you. :) Seconded.

ETA: I don't know how old that John Cleese letter is but the point about beer is way outdated. And that's a good thing. :)

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In fairness, you can pretty much take any swear word in England and turn it into a form of drunkeness. For example

Lets get pissed (previously mentioned, of course)

Lets get fucked. Jesus christ, that gus is fucked.

Lets get wankered.

you can also be

twatted

cunted

arseholed

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Back in the olden days (or still current, if you live in Yorkshire), "you" was the second person plural. Second person familiar was "thou".

It's amazing the language (in most places, anyway) evolved away from such an important word!!

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It's amazing the language (in most places, anyway) evolved away from such an important word!!

It was all this crap about equality. Soon EVERYONE thought they were important enough to be called "you." Bloody communists...

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It was all this crap about equality. Soon EVERYONE thought they were important enough to be called "you." Bloody communists...

LOL. Or maybe our linguistic ancestors were just lazy/minimalists...no complicated deciding what you have to call people/conjugating different "you"s/etc.

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Back in the olden days (or still current, if you live in Yorkshire), "you" was the second person plural. Second person familiar was "thou".

I'm sat here thinking do all my extended family conform to this stereotype and I have no frigging clue.

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It was all this crap about equality. Soon EVERYONE thought they were important enough to be called "you." Bloody communists...

Don't blame the communists, if it where up to them "thou" would be the norm, not "you". Thou ought rather blame the snobbish lower middle class in old Albion.
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Don't blame the communists, if it where up to them "thou" would be the norm, not "you". Thou ought rather blame the snobbish lower middle class in old Albion.

Thouest meanest likest the pre-Gangnam style gangnam style?

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I definitely think "y'all" is something that English speakers outside the American south should adopt. The lack of a distinct plural "you" is a problem in English. Here in Brooklyn some of us are partial to "youse," but I actually prefer "y'all."

Interesting. I picked up "youse" while living in Scotland, and occasionally still use it while back up there. Was there a Brooklyn Scots influx a hundred or so years back?

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Interesting. I picked up "youse" while living in Scotland, and occasionally still use it while back up there. Was there a Brooklyn Scots influx a hundred or so years back?

Possibly :) ...actually now that I think of it my grandmother was from Ireland and she said "youse," but she pronounced it with a shorter vowel for the "ou", like "yuz". I mean you definitely hear that said with the shorter vowel sound here too, but in a classical NY/Brooklyn accent you would really emphasize the "oo" sound. :) I'm trying to think if I've heard my cousins in Ireland say it too...in the case of Grandma sometimes it was hard to tell what was from Ireland and what she Brooklynified :D .

ETA: I mean, really it's a very logical way to solve the lack of a plural you problem. :)

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