Texas Twang Taking Over, Y'all
Two linguistics professors from the University of Texas at San Antonio are studying Texas Twang, the distinctive dialect of English proudly spoken by natives of the Lone Star State - and sometimes ridiculed by the rest of the country. Their work is being underwritten by the National Geographic Society, and the final research could become the definitive guide to Texas English.
The professors say the use of "Y'all" is spreading beyond the South into the rest of te United States. Why? Because it fills a linguistic need. It's a clearer way to denote the second-person plural than the existing - and more proper - "you".
But Texans are always looking for a way to stand out, so now some Texans are using Y'all to refer to only one person as well - as in "Y'all are my beautiful wife." It's apparently a defiant counter-reaction to the mass appropriation of the beloved term.
Other findings of the research - Texans use a flat "i" saying "naht" instead of "night" and "rahd" instead of "ride". They don't make any audible distinction when pronouncing words like "pull" and "pool" or "fool" and "full". And they have distinctive pronunciations like "warsh" instead of "wash" and "lard" instead of "lord".
But of course the sure way to spot a Texan is when he or she says "I'm fixin' to go to the grocery store." Fixin' is a dead giveaway.
How about y'all? Do people spot you're from Texas because of something you say or how you say it?
My "y'all" always gives me away.
The professors say the use of "Y'all" is spreading beyond the South into the rest of te United States. Why? Because it fills a linguistic need. It's a clearer way to denote the second-person plural than the existing - and more proper - "you".
But Texans are always looking for a way to stand out, so now some Texans are using Y'all to refer to only one person as well - as in "Y'all are my beautiful wife." It's apparently a defiant counter-reaction to the mass appropriation of the beloved term.
Other findings of the research - Texans use a flat "i" saying "naht" instead of "night" and "rahd" instead of "ride". They don't make any audible distinction when pronouncing words like "pull" and "pool" or "fool" and "full". And they have distinctive pronunciations like "warsh" instead of "wash" and "lard" instead of "lord".
But of course the sure way to spot a Texan is when he or she says "I'm fixin' to go to the grocery store." Fixin' is a dead giveaway.
How about y'all? Do people spot you're from Texas because of something you say or how you say it?
My "y'all" always gives me away.
posted by cvo @ 2:43 PM
9 Comments:
At 6:04 PM,
jmeriwether said…
When I lived in Beaumont ('92), a hostess at the Blackeyed Pea asked me if I was English and I wasn't even with my mother.
At 6:59 AM,
Unknown said…
There is little doubt that some Texas influence remains in
my speech (and that influence becomes more prominent when I
am speaking to someone with a strong accent). My conception
of ideal pronunciation, however, is not that of the Texan,
and I am often working on improving my speech.
Actually, my efforts at improvement are directed more toward
the habitual use of right grammar (no singular 'they', etc.)
than toward pronunciation, but I do occasionally practice
pronunciation, too.
At 8:17 PM,
Michelle said…
The one "Texism" that I can not seem to break is the "fixing to...". When I lived in the Midwest I lost most of my twang, but could never lose that. I even picked up some localisms along the way. My "o's" reflect Minnesota, and I piked up the habit of shortening sentences such as "Do you want to go with?". For a time I even found myself saying "eh" a bit much. Now that I have Caleb and Jess, I too am trying to clean up my language as well as my pronunciation. Caleb has a bit of a Tennessee drawl however.
At 8:40 AM,
Unknown said…
One point that I try to keep in mind is that "I shall" (and,
especially, "I'll") is just much simpler than "I am fixing
to" (or even than "I'm fixin' ta" or "I'm gonna"). "I'll"
has one third the syllables of "I'm gonna".
I have managed to train myself so that now, purely by habit,
I say, "I *shall*", "you will", "she will", "we *shall*",
"they will", etc. Unless I want to be emphatic; then I
reverse the conjugation.
The problem in my house is not the use of "is fixing to" but
rather "is going to" and, more seriously, "is gonna".
Whenever I hear any of the children say "gonna", I shout,
"'Gonna' Alert!" and make him repeat his sentence with a
proper future conjugation of the verb.
My purpose in this training of the children is not to rid
the child of his ability to speak the American vernacular.
I should not desire such riddance altogether, and it would
not be possible in any case. Rather, my purpose is merely
to *enable* the child to speak properly, whenever he choose.
In the words of Captain Kirk in the episode, "Mirror,
Mirror":
It was easier for us, as civilized men, to behave as
barbarians than it was for them, as barbarians, to behave as
civilized men.
At 8:52 AM,
Unknown said…
Note that after a "gonna alert", the child's changing
"gonna" to "going to" is not satisfactory. He must
rather use "will" or "shall" to conjugate the future tense.
Another thing that I have noticed is the frequent use of the
present progressive instead of the future, even without
"going to".
For example, "Nicholas is testing for his black belt
tomorrow."
No! "Nicholas will test for his black belt tomorrow."
There is also, the use of "this" as an adjective when the
noun to which it refers has never been introduced.
For example, Megan might say, "There is this girl in my
dance class, and she is mean to me."
No! "There is a girl in my dance class, and she is mean to
me."
"This girl" exists only after she has been introduced,
especially if there was first introduced another girl from
whom the second girl should be distinguished.
I have plenty of work to do.
At 4:17 PM,
R said…
Curtis, do you have a link for that study? I have always thought I noticed that there is no single Texas accent. I've never heard a native of San Antonio say "warsh" for example. My West Texas cousins definitely have a distinctive flat "i" and I occasionally get accused of it, but most of the time, people really have to concentrate to catch me on it. Greg Shaw had it worst of anyone I knew from SA; I'll never forget him flirting with some girls from Piscataway, NJ who couldn't stop laughing at his accent on our band trip to San Diego.
At 6:35 AM,
Unknown said…
My father would occasionally say, "warsh"; he grew up in
Houston. Perhaps "warsh" is an east-Texas pronunciation.
At 9:16 AM,
Michelle said…
"Warsh" is prevelant in East Texas. My extended family in East Texas are all "warshers".
At 5:48 AM,
Unknown said…
I don't deny that "going to", "gonna", etc. are correct in some
sense, especially in speech. I admit that I am, as you suggest,
being a bit tight.
What worries me, however, is that although one's writing style
is different from one's speaking style---for writing correctly
is much easier than speaking correctly---one's speech does carry
over into one's writing. Further, my children tend never to use
the future tense at all, not even in writing.
So my program at home is to make them think about language and
to encourage (OK, force) them at least occasionally to
use the future tense.
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