# Words (or syllables) that give an indication of where you're from **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 30, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789 "2019-05-30T20:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/141 "2019-06-04T19:41:18Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > If you greet someone with a nice cheerful “How y’all doing?” or “Y’all come back now, hear?” and you’re talking to JUST ONE PERSON, you’re not actually from the South. > > “Y’all” is plural, y’all. No kidding. I never cease to be amazed at how often Hollywood makes this mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/142 "2019-06-04T19:44:33Z")
I believe I’ve seen people on this very board say they’ve encountered “y’all” as a singular in real life. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/143 "2019-06-04T19:45:27Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Not this one – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MOJAxformw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MOJAxformw) > > Not this one – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeibzLZn2hU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeibzLZn2hU) > > Not this one – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JSIRo9DjBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JSIRo9DjBA) You’re toying with me, right? There are clearly audible L’s in every instance of the word “almond” in every one of those commercials. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/144 "2019-06-04T19:50:15Z")
The L in almond can be pretty subtle but I think most people don’t say it at all. It’s noticeable when it’s clearly pronounced. The word came from French where most of the letters aren’t pronounced and only used in spelling to confuse normal people. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/145 "2019-06-04T20:18:11Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I believe I’ve seen people on this very board say they’ve encountered “y’all” as a singular in real life. Sure. I have. I notice it often in fiction, as well. But people who use “y’all” as a singular, IME anyway, aren’t from the South. Some authors - I’m looking at you, Christopher Moore - seem to use it solely to mark a character as a southerner, like they think “y’all” is just a dialect word for “you”. It’s not; it’s a contradiction of “you all”, and - like “yinz” and “youse” and “you guys” - it’s a response to the lack of a distinct second-person plural pronoun that arose when “thou” dropped out of use and “you” took its place. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/146 "2019-06-04T20:41:42Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > You’re toying with me, right? > > There are clearly audible L’s in every instance of the word “almond” in every one of those commercials. Yeah, weird. To me, I hear "l"s in all of them, as well. I guess it’s what you expect to hear. I’m trying to hear it without an “l,” but I just can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/147 "2019-06-04T20:46:42Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > You’re toying with me, right? > > There are clearly audible L’s in every instance of the word “almond” in every one of those commercials. Nope. I hear them all as “ahhmond.” No Ls. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/148 "2019-06-04T20:48:11Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Sure. I have. I notice it often in fiction, as well. > > But people who use “y’all” as a singular, IME anyway, aren’t from the South. Some authors - I’m looking at you, Christopher Moore - seem to use it solely to mark a character as a southerner, like they think “y’all” is just a dialect word for “you”. It’s not; it’s a contradiction of “you all”, and - like “yinz” and “youse” and “you guys” - it’s a response to the lack of a distinct second-person plural pronoun that arose when “thou” dropped out of use and “you” took its place. I mean I believe we’ve had people report of hearing actual Southerners using “y’all” in the singular as a routine component of their speech. I suspect that there might be variation within the South itself on this point. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/149 "2019-06-04T20:51:10Z")
I’m also hearing L’s but I can’t tell if it’s because they’re there or I just ‘know’ there’s an L and my brain is filling it in. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/150 "2019-06-04T21:03:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I mean I believe we’ve had people report of hearing actual Southerners using “y’all” in the singular as a routine component of their speech. I suspect that there might be variation within the South itself on this point. I have friends from Georgia that say “all y’all” to make sure you know it’s plural. They claim they’ve heard “y’alls” or even “all y’alls” ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/151 "2019-06-04T21:29:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I mean I believe we’ve had people report of hearing actual Southerners using “y’all” in the singular as a routine component of their speech. I suspect that there might be variation within the South itself on this point. Maybe, I’m no expert. I can say that, in my personal experience growing up in west Texas, I never heard anyone use y’all in the singular. And I’ve known plenty of people from the South and I don’t recall any of them using it. In fact I don’t know if I’ve heard it used that way anywhere except on TV and in movies. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/152 "2019-06-04T21:32:41Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Very Fargo-ish! Our area is more german with dutch influence, none of the norwegian stuff. My specific home town (well, the nearest village, 4 miles from home) is heavily dutch and leads to some words and phrases that even confuse the people from Sheboygan. If an elderly Oostburger tells you something like “possum for the home”, he’s really saying “pas op voor de hond”, or dutch for ‘beware of the dog’. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/153 "2019-06-04T23:27:33Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Almond. If pronounced correctly with a silent “L” sound, then you’re from San Juaquin/Sacramento valley farm country. Ignorant dorks from the rest of the world pronounce the “L”. I don’t recall ever hearing this silent L almond. Here’s an interview with farmer from Fresno who unambiguously says the L. Skip to one minute: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/t4nLgY0ot38/hqdefault.jpg "Interview with Master Almond Farmer Steve Koretoff") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4nLgY0ot38) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/154 "2019-06-04T23:36:38Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I don’t recall ever hearing this silent L almond. Here’s an interview with farmer from Fresno who unambiguously says the L. Skip to one minute: > > [https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4nLgY0ot38](https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4nLgY0ot38) Yeah, clear “l” to me there, as well. I’ve heard the l-less pronunciation as well, but none of the ones linked to sound l-less to me. That said, [here is the Forvo.com](https://forvo.com/word/almond/#en) pronunciations of real people saying “almond.” In that link, all except for the last two sound like “almond” _without_ the “l” to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/155 "2019-06-05T01:54:57Z")
I wonder whether some of you are identifying a particular “A” vowel as an “AL” sound. Because the commercials I linked to are clearly pronouncing “ahmond” with no L. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/156 "2019-06-05T02:41:58Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I don’t recall ever hearing this silent L almond. Here’s an interview with farmer from Fresno who unambiguously says the L. Skip to one minute: > > [https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4nLgY0ot38](https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4nLgY0ot38) This guy says the L. Those commercials were all “ahh-mond.” ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/157 "2019-06-05T03:06:13Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I mean I believe we’ve had people report of hearing actual Southerners using “y’all” in the singular as a routine component of their speech. I suspect that there might be variation within the South itself on this point. > [@digs](#): > > I have friends from Georgia that say “all y’all” to make sure you know it’s plural. They claim they’ve heard “y’alls” or even “all y’alls” Well, I’m not so stupid as to claim there are any absolutes in language use. And I know anecdote is not data. But I’ve lived in the South for thirty-odd years, and everyone I know - family included, and my Dad was the only one to ever leave North Carolina - uses _y’all_ as a plural. Now, there are occasions when I’ve heard _y’all_ addressed to a single person. But even then, it’s with a plural meaning. For example, when I talk to my cousin, she’ll ask me “how are y’all?” She’s talking just to me, but she’s asking how my family - wife, parents, sister - are. I _have_ heard both _y’all’s_ and _all y’all_. _Y’all’s_ is a possessive - “I cain’t wait to meet y’all’s new dawg”. _All y’al_" is to specify a large group, rather than just two or three people. “Are all y’all coming back to the house, or just y’all?” As I said, I have no doubt that some Southerners have used _y’all_ as a singular. And I’m only really familiar with northern Georgia, and North Carolina. But around here, the word is pretty much exclusively plural. Y’all’s MMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/158 "2019-06-05T04:06:27Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Our area is more german with dutch influence, none of the norwegian stuff. > > My specific home town (well, the nearest village, 4 miles from home) is heavily dutch and leads to some words and phrases that even confuse the people from Sheboygan. If an elderly Oostburger tells you something like “possum for the home”, he’s really saying “pas op voor de hond”, or dutch for ‘beware of the dog’. Ahh, Oostburg. Spent some summers there in the 60s. Sweet, sleepy little Dutch town. Where you can still get Dutch salty licorice. And isn’t an ‘Oostburger’ also a burger with a bratwurst patty on it? We have a brewpub that serves a huge one on a pretzel roll with chunky brown mustard… mmmmm. On topic: Didn’t you mean to say \*“ **Shpoyg’n** ”? \* When “Fargo” came out, everyone in Wisconsin said “Hey, they’re talking like Shpoyganners!”, [as did the mom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCHLPmedzN8) in “Bobby’s World”. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/159 "2019-06-05T04:08:24Z")
A few more from Hawaii, derived from the Hawaiian/Polysesian and Asian tradition of treating almost everyone as extended family. Uncle/Auntie - generally for those a generation older (~20 years) Brah/Braddah (note NOT Bro!) - generic for guys those roughly your age Sista/Sister - generic for women roughly your age Girl/Girlie/Boy/Boya - for young children Cuz/Cousin - For someone roughly your age that you’re close to. Warning, be very careful when using any of these if you’re not very familiar with Pidgin English as they can all have positive and negative connotations depending on how your pronounce them. “Uncle! How (are) you doing?” - 😃 “Auntie! What (do) you think you (are) doing!” - :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789/160 "2019-06-05T04:20:59Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I believe I’ve seen people on this very board say they’ve encountered “y’all” as a singular in real life. I have, and I have encountered both other people correcting (“y’ALL is a PLURAL!”) and these same people accepting it when it was used as a generic you. Y’all to refer to “this specific person in front of me”, wrong; y’all to refer to whom it may concern, caaaaan be ok. Other people in the same group would use y’all only when it refered to “these specific multiple persons in front of me”, using the singular you as the generic. Raised on both sides of the Georgia-Florida line, for whatever it’s worth and it’s likely to have shuffled in these almost-30 years. Man, I’m having flashbacks to those discussions 😃 That group was fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-or-syllables-that-give-an-indication-of-where-youre-from/834789.md?page=9)