I am a Southerner. I was born in Savannah, Georgia, I lived in Mobile, Alabama, and I now live in Greenwood, South Carolina. All my family is from Columbia, South Carolina.
When I see a movie set in the South I can overlook the attempt at Southern accents by certain actors in movies like *Steel Magnolias * or Fried Green Tomatoes. But one thing takes me right out of the movie. Do not, I repeat, do not refer to one person as “y’all.” Hollywood scriptwriters, if your character is looking at one person in a jail cell do not have him say, “Y’all ain’t so uppity now are ya mister?” ‘Y’all’ is a fine practical contraction of ‘you all’ and is used to refer to a group.
Y’all just stop now, y’hear?"