Interesting fact: [As far as I’m aware, growing up in the south myself] only non-southerners use Y’all in the singular, with southerners perhaps mostly strongly interpreting the singular usage as being indicative of a northerner who is attempting to fake familiarity with the dialect, or as a southerner purposefully misusing the term to make mockery of northerners. (Google appears to confirm this: For Example.) Given that Sal went to a southern school for an extended duration, it’s unlikely she’d confuse the usage.
Unless… is Dan playing with accompaniment now? Is Ethan strummin’ a banjo in the background, looking confused? Is Carla on drums? Mike on harp?
WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING OVER THERE.
Willis! Scene shift! Quickly!
Oh, and for clarification: “Yer” is the southern singular form. 😛
HeySo
Well, technically it’d be the singular form of Y’all’re, but that’s what you were going for anyway, yea?
Sebastian Temple
As a southern-midwesterner (think South Iowa), I can confirm that people with my dialect will sometimes use “Y’all” as a singular address and use “All y’alls” as the plural address. Not everyone does it, but enough that I can comfortably conclude it’s a legit dialectic quirk and not a misinformed attempt at emulating the ‘southern’ accent.
HeySo
I’ve never it done the way you describe in Texas, Florida, or Louisiana, at least.
Yer is a contraction of You are, Y’all of You all, and All’y’alls is a combined plural you use when referencing multiple groups. Eg, y’all would refer to a family you’re talking to one member of, while all’y’alls would clarify you’re intending your comments to apply to other families [eg, at a community picnic] as well. For example, “Y’all fired off fireworks yet” would specifically inquire if the family in question had fired fireworks, while “All’y’alls fired off fireworks yet?” would be inquiring if anyone at the picnic had fired fireworks off.
Those *are* the determinative structures involved, as is intuitively indicated by the root words forming the contractions. It’s certainly possible usage branched off naturally in other regions- and it’s even more likely that poor education led to pockets of unintentional misuse [in much the same way people have started incorrectly utilizing ‘Co-op’ to refer to any multiplayer game on Steam].
Again, it may be valid for your region, but that itself would presumably be a developed bastardization of the original usage, rather than a concurrent formation. If we’re talking formal literary application, it’d be as I described.
HeySo
*never seen it done
Wright
I had a friend in grade school who had moved up from Texas, and who occasionally used y’all in the singular and “All y’alls” in plural. I remember specifically because she gave a speech presentation called “Talking Texan” where she introduced us to different parts of the dialect, including how y’all can be used in a number of circumstances and the usage of “all y’alls”.
I know I don’t have firsthand experience on this. However, I think it’s a little silly to just lump all of the southeastern United States into one big mega-dialect, without recognizing that there are regional variations and often several different types of speaking in a single state alone. It goes from silly to rude when you consider the fact that your entire reason for doing so is to criticize someone who used “y’all” singular to approximate Sal’s accent.
Clif
Just so y’all know, as a Texan, I’ve never heard y’all used except as a contraction of you all.
or we could just not be weirdo pedants/prescriptivists and accept that language changes
Clif
What fun is that?
thejeff
Of course language changes. It’s just that some changes are wrong!
And this one apparently isn’t actually a change, but an argument that been going on for a century or so.
Oz
I really like this distinction because it is gramatically equivalente to what we brazilians use lol. Like, how th do you anglophones distinguish between you (singular) and you (plural)?? Then comes a dialect where you have you four singular and y’all for plural and my little latin heart is pleased.
That’s interesting. I’m very much a Northerner, and while I do use “y’all,” I can’t see myself ever using it in the singular. It just… doesn’t make sense or sound right to me. I was momentarily thrown by Ana’s use of it in the comment, but I choose to go with the idea that Danny has suddenly cloned himself and now both of them are playing the ukulele.
HeySo
Suddenly Danny shimmers, and starts creating endless clones of himself while reality distorts in shape and color. And then, we get Dannies playing ukelele on parade.
I once had a friend who was a professor of linguistics, who specialized in American English dialects and who was a native of Jackson, Mississippi. Her observation was that people from border states were more likely to use singular “ya’ll” (her preferred spelling).
She also provided an example where a Yankee (her term) might assume “ya’ll” is a singular term. If a clerk at the local supermarket asked her, “How are ya’ll doing?,” both she and the clerk would understand that as “How are you and your family doing?,” while someone not familiar with the convention would assume that she was using a singular “ya’ll.”
Winston Churchill once japed that the US and the UK are divided by a common language. Sometimes, it seems that the US itself is divided by a common language. (Take the letter “R.” Please.)
Bruceski
Ya’ll is a pet peeve of mine. That would be pronounced more like “yowl”.
HeySo
That’s just ’cause you’re putting the apostrophe in the wrong spot. 😛
HeySo
Oh, geesh, I misunderstood you, sorry. Yes, I entirely agree.
HeySo
That makes sense. As you say, I’d intuitively interpret that to mean ‘you and your family’, but I can see how it’d be taken as a singular. I suppose people’d just adapt their future interpretations off that first one, which is how we get all’y’all as a replacement for the *actual* y’all in at least the one region indicated by Sebastian above. Border states would likely pick up both usage and misuse naturally, which would then lead to them never correcting “yankees” when they pick up the misuse themselves.
Grief, I don’t believe I’m having be on the side of “A true southerner would..”. I mean, when has that phrase ever led to anything positive? 😛
Needfuldoer
Oh, the letter R. How poorly it’s treated up in the northeast…. Everyone from central Rhode Island swamp yankees to the likes of Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III in Wellesley has their own way of taking a bat to its pronunciation.
HeySo
“Oh, the letter R. How poorly it’s treated up in the northeast”
Reminds me of Japan. 😛
Though some of those New York accents are honestly harder for me to make sense of than someone speaking actual Japanese. :X
Needfuldoer
You’d have fun trying to decipher some hardcore Fosta-Glosta swamp yankee speech, then. Or listen to Chevul from Creeanstin talk about how she and her husbin Vinnie took theyuh noo cah up ta Wright’s Fahm faw some fancy eatin’, onaccounta the shaw dinna place bein’ close.
HeySo
Quick, everyone: We need an exorcism, Needfuldoer is speaking in tongues..
The English R is just a really, really thick L anyway. If you want a proper R, then you either have the rolling R (Norwegian, Swedish, Scottish accent, Italian), or the throaty R (French, German, certain Norwegian dialects that are all horrible).
Speaking as a Texan, people use “y’all” in the singular all the damn time.
HeySo
What region? I’ve lived all through NE and been in west Texas, and I’ve never once heard it used like that (while I have heard people mocking that misuse). You sure it’s not just misinterpretation as described by Marsh above?
JohnnyO
I’ve definitely heard Y’all used as a singular. Usually as an imperative. “Y’all just have a seat and the nurse will be right with ya.”
HeySo
Like, when you’re not with accompaniment? I guess they could be extending it as a re-affirmation, indicating that you’re needing to sit the same as any other patients already there. It could also just be that their medical degree qualifications skipped out on english prerequisites. 😛
Or, as noted by others, perhaps it’s a regional thing. Still, I’ve been all around the south-east and mid-west and never come across it used in a way that goes against the meaning of its composite words. I mean, the south isn’t exactly known for its high general education standards, but it’s such a regularly used word, with intuitive application, and easy-to-decipher roots. I mean, if I hadn’t grown up around it, I could probably imagine the south managing to be that haphazard with it- but again, I’ve never once come across that before, across decades of living in a multitude of locations within the southern US.
It’s not that I’m doubting the reports that run contrary to my experiences, it’s that I have trouble imagining those reports as being reflective of any common southern trend, given all my experiences- across so many places- which run so strongly in opposition. Like, I can totally appreciate smaller backwater towns running with that, or usage deformation as the phrase is transmitted northward, as per the explanation Marsh gave above. But otherwise, it’s a usage that- as Gandalf indicated below- just feels downright wrong; like someone trying to imitate the dialect and not quite succeeding.
Well, either way- it’s both a usage that runs contrary to established usage expectations and one which should theoretically still compose a minority of applications of the word. It’s also not possessive like yer, all’yer, y’all’er, etc. So for the actual topic at hand, the fact is that Sal would be extremely unlikely to use the word in that way, in that situation. And I guess that’s just about the best we can determine on the matter- especially given that it’s a fictional character that Willis can run contrary to expectations just as strongly as he darn well pleases. 😛
thejeff
This is apparently an old argument. According to H.L. Mencken 70 years ago exclusive plural usage “is a cardinal article of faith in the South. … Nevertheless, it has been questioned very often, and with a considerable showing of evidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to be sure, you-all indicates a plural, implicit if not explicit, and thus means, when addressed to a single person, ‘you and your folks’ or the like, but the hundredth time it is impossible to discover any such extension of meaning.”
JetstreamGW
Central Texas. But I work in state government so I interact with people from all over the state.
Gandalf007
Fellow Texan (central), and I pretty much never hear the singular y’all — it would just sound wrong!.
As others have described, y’all can be addressed toward one person when it implies a group (family, coworkers, etc.), but it’s in effect plural and never means that person alone.
Well, that’s not going to happen. Not comfortably anyway.
Now we’ve established that Amber still wants him, which makes any potential relationship with Ethan as fallout from Mike’s plot even more dramatic.
It’s sad, but she’s actually talking to someone about how she feels! Getting desperately needed emotional support instead of slinking off to be alone and hate herself!
Makes me incredibly happy to see her dealing with her feelings in a healthy way even while her barely contained tears make me sad because I cannot hug her through my computer
For once amidst an existence of otherwise being perpetually wrong in every way and form; FC is right. This has some serious potential for being an important and healthy part of Amber’s healing process.
223 thoughts on “Flourished”
Ana Chronistic
well NOW I GOTTA learn how to play this thing
next comic tho:
Sal: “Ah wear this crown of thorns–”
Danny: “SHIT”
S: “What?”
D: “It’s SHIT!”
S: “YOU’RE shit!”
D: “No, it’s crown of SHIT”
S: “Hell, no, this is the Cash version! Weren’t ya listenin’ at ALL?”
D: “You’re covering a cover?? You have no musical integrity!!”
S: “Y’ALL PLAYIN’ A UKULELE”
D: “Well, I’m taking my ukulele and going home!”
S: “Whatever floats yer boat, Wonderbread”
*DEATH OF SANNY*
MM
Something tells me Danny would be surprised to learn the Cash version was a cover.
JetstreamGW
Lots of people are surprised to learn that.
Sometimes I wonder if Trent Reznor is surprised.
MrSpkr
Someone asked Reznor how he felt about Johnny Cash doing his (Reznor’s) song. Trent replied, “It’s Johnny’s song now.”
Godfather
I had no idea Cash’s version was a cover! Thought his was the original!
DrunkenNordmann
As far as Trent Reznor’s concerned, it might as well be the original now.
Stoodmuffin
LMAO
HeySo
“Y’all”
Interesting fact: [As far as I’m aware, growing up in the south myself] only non-southerners use Y’all in the singular, with southerners perhaps mostly strongly interpreting the singular usage as being indicative of a northerner who is attempting to fake familiarity with the dialect, or as a southerner purposefully misusing the term to make mockery of northerners. (Google appears to confirm this: For Example.) Given that Sal went to a southern school for an extended duration, it’s unlikely she’d confuse the usage.
Unless… is Dan playing with accompaniment now? Is Ethan strummin’ a banjo in the background, looking confused? Is Carla on drums? Mike on harp?
WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING OVER THERE.
Willis! Scene shift! Quickly!
HeySo
*most strongly.
Wish there was a short editing window after posting. :X
HeySo
Oh, and for clarification: “Yer” is the southern singular form. 😛
HeySo
Well, technically it’d be the singular form of Y’all’re, but that’s what you were going for anyway, yea?
Sebastian Temple
As a southern-midwesterner (think South Iowa), I can confirm that people with my dialect will sometimes use “Y’all” as a singular address and use “All y’alls” as the plural address. Not everyone does it, but enough that I can comfortably conclude it’s a legit dialectic quirk and not a misinformed attempt at emulating the ‘southern’ accent.
HeySo
I’ve never it done the way you describe in Texas, Florida, or Louisiana, at least.
Yer is a contraction of You are, Y’all of You all, and All’y’alls is a combined plural you use when referencing multiple groups. Eg, y’all would refer to a family you’re talking to one member of, while all’y’alls would clarify you’re intending your comments to apply to other families [eg, at a community picnic] as well. For example, “Y’all fired off fireworks yet” would specifically inquire if the family in question had fired fireworks, while “All’y’alls fired off fireworks yet?” would be inquiring if anyone at the picnic had fired fireworks off.
Those *are* the determinative structures involved, as is intuitively indicated by the root words forming the contractions. It’s certainly possible usage branched off naturally in other regions- and it’s even more likely that poor education led to pockets of unintentional misuse [in much the same way people have started incorrectly utilizing ‘Co-op’ to refer to any multiplayer game on Steam].
Again, it may be valid for your region, but that itself would presumably be a developed bastardization of the original usage, rather than a concurrent formation. If we’re talking formal literary application, it’d be as I described.
HeySo
*never seen it done
Wright
I had a friend in grade school who had moved up from Texas, and who occasionally used y’all in the singular and “All y’alls” in plural. I remember specifically because she gave a speech presentation called “Talking Texan” where she introduced us to different parts of the dialect, including how y’all can be used in a number of circumstances and the usage of “all y’alls”.
I know I don’t have firsthand experience on this. However, I think it’s a little silly to just lump all of the southeastern United States into one big mega-dialect, without recognizing that there are regional variations and often several different types of speaking in a single state alone. It goes from silly to rude when you consider the fact that your entire reason for doing so is to criticize someone who used “y’all” singular to approximate Sal’s accent.
Clif
Just so y’all know, as a Texan, I’ve never heard y’all used except as a contraction of you all.
vividgrim
or we could just not be weirdo pedants/prescriptivists and accept that language changes
Clif
What fun is that?
thejeff
Of course language changes. It’s just that some changes are wrong!
And this one apparently isn’t actually a change, but an argument that been going on for a century or so.
Oz
I really like this distinction because it is gramatically equivalente to what we brazilians use lol. Like, how th do you anglophones distinguish between you (singular) and you (plural)?? Then comes a dialect where you have you four singular and y’all for plural and my little latin heart is pleased.
Yumi
That’s interesting. I’m very much a Northerner, and while I do use “y’all,” I can’t see myself ever using it in the singular. It just… doesn’t make sense or sound right to me. I was momentarily thrown by Ana’s use of it in the comment, but I choose to go with the idea that Danny has suddenly cloned himself and now both of them are playing the ukulele.
HeySo
Suddenly Danny shimmers, and starts creating endless clones of himself while reality distorts in shape and color. And then, we get Dannies playing ukelele on parade.
RiverDee
So Sal”s drunk now!?
HeySo
As lightweight as the comic has established her to be, that shouldn’t take much doing. 😛
Marsh Maryrose
I once had a friend who was a professor of linguistics, who specialized in American English dialects and who was a native of Jackson, Mississippi. Her observation was that people from border states were more likely to use singular “ya’ll” (her preferred spelling).
She also provided an example where a Yankee (her term) might assume “ya’ll” is a singular term. If a clerk at the local supermarket asked her, “How are ya’ll doing?,” both she and the clerk would understand that as “How are you and your family doing?,” while someone not familiar with the convention would assume that she was using a singular “ya’ll.”
Winston Churchill once japed that the US and the UK are divided by a common language. Sometimes, it seems that the US itself is divided by a common language. (Take the letter “R.” Please.)
Bruceski
Ya’ll is a pet peeve of mine. That would be pronounced more like “yowl”.
HeySo
That’s just ’cause you’re putting the apostrophe in the wrong spot. 😛
HeySo
Oh, geesh, I misunderstood you, sorry. Yes, I entirely agree.
HeySo
That makes sense. As you say, I’d intuitively interpret that to mean ‘you and your family’, but I can see how it’d be taken as a singular. I suppose people’d just adapt their future interpretations off that first one, which is how we get all’y’all as a replacement for the *actual* y’all in at least the one region indicated by Sebastian above. Border states would likely pick up both usage and misuse naturally, which would then lead to them never correcting “yankees” when they pick up the misuse themselves.
Grief, I don’t believe I’m having be on the side of “A true southerner would..”. I mean, when has that phrase ever led to anything positive? 😛
Needfuldoer
Oh, the letter R. How poorly it’s treated up in the northeast…. Everyone from central Rhode Island swamp yankees to the likes of Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III in Wellesley has their own way of taking a bat to its pronunciation.
HeySo
“Oh, the letter R. How poorly it’s treated up in the northeast”
Reminds me of Japan. 😛
Though some of those New York accents are honestly harder for me to make sense of than someone speaking actual Japanese. :X
Needfuldoer
You’d have fun trying to decipher some hardcore Fosta-Glosta swamp yankee speech, then. Or listen to Chevul from Creeanstin talk about how she and her husbin Vinnie took theyuh noo cah up ta Wright’s Fahm faw some fancy eatin’, onaccounta the shaw dinna place bein’ close.
HeySo
Quick, everyone: We need an exorcism, Needfuldoer is speaking in tongues..
Emperor Norton II
The English R is just a really, really thick L anyway. If you want a proper R, then you either have the rolling R (Norwegian, Swedish, Scottish accent, Italian), or the throaty R (French, German, certain Norwegian dialects that are all horrible).
JetstreamGW
Speaking as a Texan, people use “y’all” in the singular all the damn time.
HeySo
What region? I’ve lived all through NE and been in west Texas, and I’ve never once heard it used like that (while I have heard people mocking that misuse). You sure it’s not just misinterpretation as described by Marsh above?
JohnnyO
I’ve definitely heard Y’all used as a singular. Usually as an imperative. “Y’all just have a seat and the nurse will be right with ya.”
HeySo
Like, when you’re not with accompaniment? I guess they could be extending it as a re-affirmation, indicating that you’re needing to sit the same as any other patients already there. It could also just be that their medical degree qualifications skipped out on english prerequisites. 😛
Or, as noted by others, perhaps it’s a regional thing. Still, I’ve been all around the south-east and mid-west and never come across it used in a way that goes against the meaning of its composite words. I mean, the south isn’t exactly known for its high general education standards, but it’s such a regularly used word, with intuitive application, and easy-to-decipher roots. I mean, if I hadn’t grown up around it, I could probably imagine the south managing to be that haphazard with it- but again, I’ve never once come across that before, across decades of living in a multitude of locations within the southern US.
It’s not that I’m doubting the reports that run contrary to my experiences, it’s that I have trouble imagining those reports as being reflective of any common southern trend, given all my experiences- across so many places- which run so strongly in opposition. Like, I can totally appreciate smaller backwater towns running with that, or usage deformation as the phrase is transmitted northward, as per the explanation Marsh gave above. But otherwise, it’s a usage that- as Gandalf indicated below- just feels downright wrong; like someone trying to imitate the dialect and not quite succeeding.
Well, either way- it’s both a usage that runs contrary to established usage expectations and one which should theoretically still compose a minority of applications of the word. It’s also not possessive like yer, all’yer, y’all’er, etc. So for the actual topic at hand, the fact is that Sal would be extremely unlikely to use the word in that way, in that situation. And I guess that’s just about the best we can determine on the matter- especially given that it’s a fictional character that Willis can run contrary to expectations just as strongly as he darn well pleases. 😛
thejeff
This is apparently an old argument. According to H.L. Mencken 70 years ago exclusive plural usage “is a cardinal article of faith in the South. … Nevertheless, it has been questioned very often, and with a considerable showing of evidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to be sure, you-all indicates a plural, implicit if not explicit, and thus means, when addressed to a single person, ‘you and your folks’ or the like, but the hundredth time it is impossible to discover any such extension of meaning.”
JetstreamGW
Central Texas. But I work in state government so I interact with people from all over the state.
Gandalf007
Fellow Texan (central), and I pretty much never hear the singular y’all — it would just sound wrong!.
As others have described, y’all can be addressed toward one person when it implies a group (family, coworkers, etc.), but it’s in effect plural and never means that person alone.
David DeLaney
Well, everything in Texas is big, so the singulars ARE plural, y’see.
–Dave, big sky, big hat, big grammary
Clif
Jetstream, if you’re a Texan who hears people using y’all in the singular all the time, then you’ve been hanging around with too many damn Yankees.
TemperaryObsessor
As a northerner that sounds about right.
Ana Chronistic
“LOOK ATCHEW, ALL PLAYIN’ A UKULELE”
idgaf “perfect” dialogue is an unnatural abnormality that no one should encourage
HermesParsifal
” You all is plural, if there’s only one just say you.”- Michael Reno Harell, Souther Suggestions.
HermesParsifal
“Southern Suggestions”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m6uNXtOirs8
SomeDumbGuy
ah wear this crown of replies
Achallenger
We all know that classic trot
AnvilPro
Danny deserves literally anyone that doesn’t share have the same silhouette as Amber and Dorothy
Psyme
Yes.
But that begs the question, does he even want somebody with a different silhouette?
HeySo
…Ethan comes to mind? 😛
Clif
Maybe it wasn’t Ethan’s silhouette he was looking at.
HeySo
“that begs the question”
Also: http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2173
Joy
Danny deserves to be comfortably single, for a while.
thejeff
Well, that’s not going to happen. Not comfortably anyway.
Now we’ve established that Amber still wants him, which makes any potential relationship with Ethan as fallout from Mike’s plot even more dramatic.
electriccombines
Oh, Amber. <:(
Fart Captor
It’s sad, but she’s actually talking to someone about how she feels! Getting desperately needed emotional support instead of slinking off to be alone and hate herself!
Makes me incredibly happy to see her dealing with her feelings in a healthy way even while her barely contained tears make me sad because I cannot hug her through my computer
Emperor Norton II
For once amidst an existence of otherwise being perpetually wrong in every way and form; FC is right. This has some serious potential for being an important and healthy part of Amber’s healing process.
Inahc
yay, talking 🙂
Jess
This is a little more information about Amber than I think I wanted.
(I developed a Pavlovian response to ukeleles during college — hearing one now instantly makes me feel both stressed and intensely frustrated.)
@zombieundergrnd
Danny is rot. He deserves nothing good.
Schpoonman
I’d like to hear your thoughts on how you came to that conclusion.
Fire_daws
Perfect avatar is perfect.
Emperor Norton II
As is yours right now.
Mr D
HE read “ROOMIES!” and he can’t differentiate.
Joy
If this were a roomies comic section, I’d quickly agree.
Keulen
Seconding this, since Danny has seemed pretty decent since his early appearances in this comic to me.
AnvilPro
If you think Danny was the problem in his relationship with Amber, I don’t think we’ve been reading the same comic
Goki
I believe Zonbie’s comments would be what the kids are calling “bait”.
StClair
(Fury Road gif goes here)
Marsh Maryrose
Who is this Zoombie of whom you speak? Does not this Zumbey understand they’re all good characters?
Needfuldoer
You know, a zmobie. They live with the skleletons and ghuols in the Misspelled Cemetary in the Nearby Plains.