I’ve heard people from both Louisiana and Mississippi use the word “y’all” to refer to one person. YMMV, I guess.
I grew up in Colorado, and had never had sausage gravy & biscuits.
I once stayed at a friend’s parent’s house in West Virginia. (I know, not technically The South, but it used to be.) Sitting down to breakfast, my friend’s mom put out a bowl of freshly baked biscuits. I grabbed one, split it in half, and started buttering it. My friend looked at me and asked what the hell I was doing. “Buttering my biscuit,” I said defensively. He then said that that’s not what the biscuits were for. His mom brought the gravy, and he showed me how to make SG&B.
Technically, it shouldn’t be used that way. I think they are meaning to use it in the “how is everyone on your side of the fence” type greeting.
Otherwise… I dunno.
Of course, if you order Coke in the south, they’ll ask “what kind of Coke?”, since it’s a generic word for soda.
Hey!!! that happened to me just a few days ago in a rain puddle my car coudn’t swim!!!
I knew I was a southerner, when my pronuciation of things like “roof” turned into “ruff”, and “wolf” turned into “wuff.”
Also grits are only acceptable as a salty/ spicy type of food. I wouldn’t put syrup on home fries! ugh!
now I’m a converted southerner, been here since I was 8. But my husband is a pure floridian 4 generations back. Right when it became a state for goodness sake. I thought there were only palm trees and gators then. 
Not in Mississippi. If I order Coke, I get the original invented-in-Atlanta-and-first-bottled-in-Mississippi Coke.
I understand in other parts of the country they have this problem, but down here we understand how these things work. 
They may have been residents of Louisiana or Mississippi, but if they actually said that (and were not, as suggested by another poster, in fact inquiring as to the welfare of the addressee and his relations), then they weren’t from Louisiana or Mississippi (no matter how long ago their carpetbagger ancestors might have moved there).
I’m from New Mexico, which may be south of most states but isn’t THE South, if you know what I mean, but I’ve never had any problem understanding “y’all.” It’s second person plural, the “ustedes” form, which every language should have. Geez. We could also use a gender-neutral third person singular, but that’s beside the point.
As for ordering a coke in the South, I’ve always understood that if you’re asked what kind and you want Coke, you say, “Co-cola.” Have I been misled?
Second person plural is the vosotros, the red-headed bastard stepchild of all tenses in Spanish. From what I gathered from every Spanish teacher I ever had, no one in the New World uses the vosotros – just people in Spain (can any Spanish speakers out there confirm or deny?). I always felt a little sorry for vosotros, although the suffix is pretty unwieldy and funny-looking.
Third person plural is ustedes.
Hang on. I’m going on my high school Spanish (and what I hear on the bus) and I’m also a college dropout, but “usted” is the formal “you” and “you” is second person.
It’s all hazy to me now, but “Nosotros” is FIRST person plural, right?
In Louisiana we have 3 seasons:
-
Hunting (squirrel, rabbit, dove, deer and such)
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Fishing (Catfish, bream, Sac-a-lait (Crappie to all you non-cajuns), bass)
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Football
These seasons may overlap and all produce widows!
Here in Texas, y’all (notice the apostrophe) is always singular, unless, as mentioned before, you are inquiring about the rest of their family. Sweet grits are just plain nasty! Butter and salt and pepper for me. However, ordering iced tea will not get you sweet tea. It’s quite annoying too, 'cuz when you finally get it just right, the waitress will come by and put some more unsweetened tea into your glass. Forcing you to doctor it again, take one sip, and she’s back! Some cafeteria-type restaurants have two dispensers, one sweet, one not.
P.S. this is a BIGGIE for all y’all from the MIDWEST
(NAMELY MN) Coke=carbonated Beverage with a caramel color to it, known most as Coca Cola Classic
Coke=ANY carbonated beverage that is available from the fountain or the gun
pop=a sound something makes or someone punching someone else
never ever mix them or you will be in for some strange looks…
this happened to my cousin one time, she’s like, “I’ll take a pop”
“you’ll take a WHAT?”
“I’ll take a (after scanning the fountain) … coke”
“What kind?”
“What do you MEAN what kind?”
“Well, we have Coke, Diet coke Mtn. Dew, ROOT beer, and Fanta”
“she let out an exasperated sigh and said, fine… fine… I’ll take Mtn Dew”
I was there LAUGHING so hard!!!
also, as someone else posted, never say anything bad about Earnhart unless you don’t value yourself…
Interesting thing about the generic use of “Coke.” In Chattanooga, it applies to all soft drinks…actual Coke is, indeed, pronounced co-CO-la.
But here in Knoxville, just a hundred miles up the pike, folks will generally just name the specific drink. You might here “soda” occasionally, but never “pop.”
And “tea” means sweetened iced tea…although the more progressive restaurants (and national chains) offer the unsweetened variety, too. Hot tea? Forget it. We drink tea to cool off. Only in the bohemian coffee houses is such an odd concoction brewed.
All this talk about breakfast is making me hungry. I’ll have two eggs over easy, biskits’n’gravy, grits, and hog jowl. Oh, and a sliced tomato on the side.
Peace,
TN*hippie
Here in Kansas City, center of the Midwest, Coke is Coca-Cola, although rarely it is allowed to be used in the generic sense. Soda is the most common name for a carbonated beverage, but pop will suffice, and does not lend dirty looks or disgrace.
–Tim
Dolores - where in Texas are you located? I’m a third generation Ft. Worther and “y’all” is always plural.
Snoooopy. Ustedes is 2nd person plural formal. Vosotros is 2nd person plural familiar, but since you use the formal if even one person in the group may be of a higher status than you, apparently only the Pope is allowed to use it correctly. Ellos and ellas are third person plural (IIRC).
errr… lemme re-phrase that…
that was a post of y’all FROM the midwest on your vacations DOWN to the south, sorry for the conglomerative confusion
Sugar does NOT go in cornbread.
A Yankee by birth, I have been living in Huntsville, AL for 5 years now. (and no, I will never say y’all, fixin’ ta, tear it up, big ol’, etc.) One of the first times my wife and I came down to visit (she found her biological father here) I made the BIG mistake of putting butter and sugar on my grits. I also put ketchup on my scrambled eggs. You would have thought I shot Bear Bryant. What looks I got!
Here in AL, a “coke” is anything that even resembles soda. I am hard pressed to find any restaurant that serves (gasp) Pepsi. If I order “iced tea” I am promptly corrected. “You mean sweet tea?” Yes. I know it’s sweet tea, I’m just being difficult.
When we first drove down here, I honestly thought I was going to be pulled over by cops at some point because I had NY license plates. I really expected to find that everyone lives in trailers, that no one wears shoes, etc. Of course, that’s just not true. Welllll, most of the time, anyway.
We like it here. And our Southern-born friends get a big kick out of hearing us say stuff like “Yo, Schmuck!” and “forgetaboutit”. There are some people who think that if they make us mad we will pull out a knife and stab them
I also get a kick out of the standard southern responses to any Yankee complaining about anything:
A) Delta is ready when you are
B) I-95 runs northbound, too.
If you ever find yourself in the South and get hungry, I would highly recommend eating at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Grits, biscuits, red-eye gravy, fried chicken, sheeeeeeeee-yooooooot, dem’s good eatin’!
DC, being from Arkansas, I’m perfectly willing to believe any slander you care to perpetrate on the people and state of Texas (despite having relatives there myself). However, my more rational side is complaining of strained credulity at these two statements. Perhaps, if you’re in parts of Houston, Austin, or God forbid, Dallas, you may have found these things to be true, but I suspect that outside these metropolitan areas, in the more right-thinking areas (insofar as Texas may be said to have right-thinking areas), “y’all” is used in the canonical Southern fashion, and “tea” means iced, sweetened tea.