First, let me say that I live in Texas. I don't like it. Let me be clear. I have met some really awesome people here, and Texas has produced some of my favorite things. I don't like Texas; specifically the environment. Compared to what I still claim to be my natural environment, Texas is flat, brown, and with horrendous weather which can be extremely inconsistent from one day to another and nearly devoid of snow.
Most people have an opinion on what the most ugly or repulsive word in the English language is. My top pick is "y'all". And while I know that my dislike of the word is a holdover from the biases of my peer groups during my formative years, as I grew up and learned more, like any reasonable adult, I began to rationalize my hatred.
Let's take a look at the word for a moment.
Y'all: contraction of the words you and all. By definition that would mean that y'all is a second person plural pronoun. I admit that if this was the chief usage of the word, I may be okay with it. However, it has been my repeated experience that contemporary vernacular uses it as:
- second person singular pronoun: "Jimmy, y'all need to feed the chickens."
- culturally specific filler word: "Ya'll, I don't know. This chili is a bit light, y'all. What do y'all think?."
- punctuation: "Cows, y'all!"*
I have spent nearly fifteen years living in Texas. The first five years I couldn't hear or see the word without reflexively grimacing. About three more years before it would pop up in my inner monologue and I wouldn't twitch (even though my train of thought immediately halts when it does). Several more years before I could stutter it out to explain to people why I responded so oddly to what they said. And now even while writing this I've been choking back the bile.
So, yeah.
Fuck y'all!
March of the Critics 2012's first rejected write up!