What’s your beef with y’all? Any linguist will tell you that if people say it, it’s a word and a valid form of communication. Prescriptivism went out a loooong time ago.r
Linguistic prescription has never stopped being popular and common. Not in 46 BC when Marcus Tullius Cicero was lamenting the “deterioration” of latin, and not in any age since.
It also has never stopped being completely futile and silly.
Rules are put in place for a reason. Whether you agree with that reason is a separate matter. But when you break rules, there are potential consequences.
Some consequences of breaking rules of grammar can range from having people look down on you like the addlepate you present yourself to be, to not getting a job you may have otherwise been qualified for. Severe deviation from the rules of grammar often results in people not understanding what you’re saying at all.
Having said that, SotiCoto sort of made a name for themselves (and then disappeared) by ranting against the use – every use – of “y’all” – a perfectly acceptable, and widely used, contraction of “you all”. There’s nothing wrong with “y’all”… they just didn’t like it.
This isn’t formal writing. It’s fiction. They are writing like people talk, and trying to give the panda a particular sort of informal voice. “Y’all” is used commonly in some parts of the world. Get over it.
Remember, this isn’t a direct translation, this is how Unity is translating what he’s saying. So whether he intends to make the contraction or that’ just how she hears it, that’s how she’s hearing what he’s saying.
I hate to do this, but SotiCoto was right, as is Kanta. I checked Merriam-Webster, Oxford, & Cambridge online. They refer to y’all as regional dialect. I interpret that to mean it isn’t within style guide rules to use it in a translation footnote.
Of course, they are also wrong because this isn’t journalism, isn’t a scholarly work. It is genius to break rules when it makes a particular piece of FICTIONAL prose work better. So the panda’s translation includes “y’all.” So? If Gavotte used “y’all” it would probably be jarring without being entertaining. But if Shaneon/Jeff can make it work–make the comic funnier, weirder, darker, whatever–then they can have Gavotte use the word. Success in a work of fiction is it’s own justification.
I was never against the use of, “Y’all.”
I was just against the general, “Linguistic prescriptivism is dead, you can type gibberish and assume anyone who doesn’t understand you is just a stick in the mud,” attitude.
That’s how we get people using, “Literally,” to mean, “A lot or intensely.”
(TUNE: “Don’t Bring Me Down”, Electric Light Orchestra)
You’re up a tree now and you’re being so rude!
I’m looking up and saying, “Screw this noise, dude!”
I’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
You mis’rable wretch! Your fanny Sweetheart will fetch!
I’ll bring you down!
I’ll serve these papers, do whatever it takes!
I’ll take this tree and give it three or four shakes!
I’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Endangered or not, I’ll take you out like a shot!
I’ll bring you down!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you dow-ow-ow-own!
Though Sweetheart won’t retreive because she’s a spitz,
We’ll keep on coming, neither one of us quits!
We’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
So do not resist, or else you’ll talk to my fist!
I’ll bring you down, down, down, down, down!
Even translating things into “y’all” now?
It isn’t even a thing. Hear me? It isn’t a thing. Not a word. Not anything.
What’s your beef with y’all? Any linguist will tell you that if people say it, it’s a word and a valid form of communication. Prescriptivism went out a loooong time ago.r
Linguistic prescription has never stopped being popular and common. Not in 46 BC when Marcus Tullius Cicero was lamenting the “deterioration” of latin, and not in any age since.
It also has never stopped being completely futile and silly.
Language has rules. If you break rules, you are cheating. If you cheat, you should be punished.
One of those rules is contraction, where two words are condensed into one and the missing letters replaced by an apostrophe.
Video games have rules and I break them all the time. Rules are arbitrary restrictions placed by people for reasons that may or may not be good.
Ain’t no good reason to enforce dialectical prejudices.
Rules are put in place for a reason. Whether you agree with that reason is a separate matter. But when you break rules, there are potential consequences.
Some consequences of breaking rules of grammar can range from having people look down on you like the addlepate you present yourself to be, to not getting a job you may have otherwise been qualified for. Severe deviation from the rules of grammar often results in people not understanding what you’re saying at all.
Having said that, SotiCoto sort of made a name for themselves (and then disappeared) by ranting against the use – every use – of “y’all” – a perfectly acceptable, and widely used, contraction of “you all”. There’s nothing wrong with “y’all”… they just didn’t like it.
You do of course realize that “arbitrary” and “for reasons” are contradictory.
This isn’t formal writing. It’s fiction. They are writing like people talk, and trying to give the panda a particular sort of informal voice. “Y’all” is used commonly in some parts of the world. Get over it.
Remember, this isn’t a direct translation, this is how Unity is translating what he’s saying. So whether he intends to make the contraction or that’ just how she hears it, that’s how she’s hearing what he’s saying.
I find your lack of y’all disturbing.
I hate to do this, but SotiCoto was right, as is Kanta. I checked Merriam-Webster, Oxford, & Cambridge online. They refer to y’all as regional dialect. I interpret that to mean it isn’t within style guide rules to use it in a translation footnote.
Of course, they are also wrong because this isn’t journalism, isn’t a scholarly work. It is genius to break rules when it makes a particular piece of FICTIONAL prose work better. So the panda’s translation includes “y’all.” So? If Gavotte used “y’all” it would probably be jarring without being entertaining. But if Shaneon/Jeff can make it work–make the comic funnier, weirder, darker, whatever–then they can have Gavotte use the word. Success in a work of fiction is it’s own justification.
I was never against the use of, “Y’all.”
I was just against the general, “Linguistic prescriptivism is dead, you can type gibberish and assume anyone who doesn’t understand you is just a stick in the mud,” attitude.
That’s how we get people using, “Literally,” to mean, “A lot or intensely.”
(TUNE: “Don’t Bring Me Down”, Electric Light Orchestra)
You’re up a tree now and you’re being so rude!
I’m looking up and saying, “Screw this noise, dude!”
I’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
You mis’rable wretch! Your fanny Sweetheart will fetch!
I’ll bring you down!
I’ll serve these papers, do whatever it takes!
I’ll take this tree and give it three or four shakes!
I’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Endangered or not, I’ll take you out like a shot!
I’ll bring you down!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you down … dude!
I’ll bring you dow-ow-ow-own!
Though Sweetheart won’t retreive because she’s a spitz,
We’ll keep on coming, neither one of us quits!
We’ll bring you down … yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
So do not resist, or else you’ll talk to my fist!
I’ll bring you down, down, down, down, down!