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Bonus Entry: "Hindi Medium", Overt Prestige and the Dilemma of Singular Language Paradigm 

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Bonus Entry: "Hindi Medium", Overt Prestige and the Dilemma of Singular Language Paradigm 

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- Context & Example: Answer: This video is an example of the overt prestige attached to English in India, the film focuses on a pair of class-anxious Indian middle-class parents who want their daughter to receive an English education due to the language's extremely high overt prestige within Indian society. To achieve this aim, they went as far as to disguise themselves as poor people who live in the slum to try to qualify for the limited seats reserved for underprivileged families at a prestigious English prep school in India. "English is not just a language in this country, it's class" declared the protagonist's wife. Timestamp: 1:52-54 in the film trailer

- Background: Answer: As a British colony starting from mid 19th century, India, divided into numerous smaller kingdoms, hosts a myriad of different languages that are mutually unintelligible. The British, in an attempt to aid the colonial administration, implemented a small education program that only teaches a handful of local elites about speaking proper English. It is from that time that Indian people began to judge one’s ability to speak English as someone’s social status. Recognized English as an official national language after Independence for its ability to connect India’s diverse ethnic groups, each of which speaks a different language (Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Assamese, Maithili, and Odia). To fulfill this need for unifying communication, the overt prestige attached to English continues in modern India, where the resource is scarce and good education is only supplied to either the rich or the extremely talented due to its huge population. Thus, the desire to send a kid into a school that teaches its curriculum in English (English medium schools), as opposed to a school that teaches in Hindi, the native tongue of many Indians(Hindi medium schools), becomes middle-class anxiety because the ability to speak English translates into one’s future social status. If the child could speak English fluently, the family could very possibly move to a higher class. If the child could not speak it fluently, the family may face the threat of regressing back into the lower-middle class.

- Reason for picking this article & how it connects to overt prestige: Answer: I think the film cast the problem associated with overt and covert prestige in a very delicate light. On the one hand, advocating a standard language (assigning a specific language with overt prestige, in this case, English) could have many benefits including lessening the challenge of communication among different ethnic groups and promoting a sense of national unity. In this case, English has become an instrument to unite Indians who speak different regional languages together. On the other hand, the promotion of a specific language obstructs class mobility and undermines linguistic diversity. Children that live in remote and less developed regions in India could not afford an English medium school, and many of them, thanks to the overt prestige attached to English, are ostracized in an increasingly competitive Indian economy, in which many jobs with decent pay require English proficiency. The parents that actively promotes English over their culture’s mother tongue for better employment prospect for their kids are accelerating the process of language death. Coupled with the competitive pressure in a country with a huge population, Hindi, along with many other languages spoken by billions of other Indians, will conceivably disappear in the future due to the prominence and the overt prestige attached to English. Where could we find a balance to maximize the unifying effect of attaching a language with overt prestige and minimize its destructive effect on linguistic diversity? I think this is an issue that sociolinguists should devote more attention to and, hopefully, could propose an appropriate solution.

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Official Trailer: Hindi Medium | Irrfan Khan | Saba Qamar & Deepak Dobriyal | In Cinemas 19th May

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Directive Case, the "sword" emoji

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Directive Case, the "sword" emoji

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- Context & Background: Answer:  Cher, a famous American singer, posted this tweet on her tweeter account to call for the U.S. and its allies to defend Ukraine and fight Russia in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

- Justification: Answer: Here this "sword" emoji is interpreted as having a directive function since the overall message of the tweet where the emoji lies calls for the West to take action and battle Russia on the frontline, which can be seen from her words: "we have to battle them eventually."

- Reason for picking this emoji: Answer: I think the example is relevant to current affairs happening around the world and I’m personally interested in politics, so I chose this as the subject of this padlet

- Is it successful: Answer: I think it is mostly successful since people in the comment section directly address the message she is trying to get across. Some say they don't want nuclear warfare because Russia has a nuclear weapon and may use it against their enemies, others applauded her bravery and expressed a similar desire to prevent Russia from further expanding westward

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Phatic Case, the "smiling face" emoji

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Phatic Case, the "smiling face" emoji

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- Context & Background: Answer:  two people chatting about leave time and one person apparently could not find her umbrella. When she found it she expressed her excitement verbally and added a "smiling face" emoji to make the conversation become more smooth.

- Justification: Answer: Here this "smiling face" emoji is deemed as having a Phatic function. It is not interpreted as having an expressive function since the exclamation mark practically signaled the person's joy in finding her umbrella. The emoji is identified as a Phatic case because it merely adds to the smoothness of the conversation to make it more vivid and comfortable by mimicking the sense of emotional connection of face-to-face conversation.

- Reason for picking this emoji: Answer: I think the example is interesting and appropriate for the discussion in this padlet

- Is it successful: Answer: I think it is mostly successful since the other person responds with a big smile emoji, indicating that the person is happy that she found her umbrella and shared her positive emotion.

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Expressive Case, the "confused" emoji

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Entry #9: Communicative functions in emoji: Expressive Case, the "confused" emoji

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- Context & Background:  Answer: I asked my friend at the Mcgill University in Canada about his feeling and experience about taking the Graduate Record Examination. Specifically, I asked him "森哥，分出了吗" in Mandarin, meaning "my bro, did you get the score for your GRE? "to which he replied "gre 是什么"， meaning "What is GRE?" with a "confused" emoji. We both know that he took the GRE but here his reply seems as if he does not even know what GRE is. Combined with the "confused" emoji and his later reply "一年没碰了” meaning “ I haven't thought about that for a year" we, therefore, could conclude here that he did take the GRE but he does not obtain a satisfactory score and has not thought about giving it another try for a year.

- Justification: Answer:  The emoji has an expressive function because although we could understand the meaning of his words without the emoji, the "confused" emoji here adds an additional expression of his emotion about the distantness of his last attempt at GRE and a sense of funny embarrassment since he clearly still needs to re-take that exam (which he ought to be preparing yet he did not) in order to get into the graduate school of his choice, which is his goal.

- Reason for picking this emoji: Answer: This is a recent interaction with one of my high school classmates. We both studied aboard with me studying in the U.S. while he chose to study in Canada. We both want to go to a graduate school in the U.S. so we often contact each other about tips and prep strategies for the GRE, a required exam for applying to U.S. graduate school. I think the interaction is one of the smoothest interactions in recent days so I picked it as the subject of this padlet (the subject may not be a strict emoji but I think it serves an identical purpose)

- Is it successful: Answer: The use is only partly successful since I was able to appreciate what he is trying to express (the sense of distantness from the last exam he took). However, the sense of embarrassment, which is another layer of his emotion behind this emoji, is only sensed by me after he said he got a pretty bad score last time he took the exam, which indicates that he still needs to re-take it. Initially, I thought he passed the exam and the "confusing" emoji only serves to show the distantness of his last exam, rather than realizing there is also a sense of embarrassment underlining it. Therefore, it is only partly successful since it only expressed half of the sentiment he wishes to convey.

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Entry #7: Acts of identity in music: Eason Chen, the shift from Cantonese to Standard Mandarin, and the Hongkongese identity. Example

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Entry #7: Acts of identity in music: Eason Chen, the shift from Cantonese to Standard Mandarin, and the Hongkongese identity. Example

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Ten Years, the most popular song in Mandarin published in 2003

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陳奕迅 Eason Chan《十年(國) [OT : 明年今日]》[Official MV]

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Entry #7: Acts of identity in music: Eason Chen, the shift from Cantonese to Standard Mandarin, and the Hongkongese identity

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Entry #7: Acts of identity in music: Eason Chen, the shift from Cantonese to Standard Mandarin, and the Hongkongese identity

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- Context & Example: This article discusses Eason Chen, a popular Hong Kong singer, and his shift from composing Cantonese songs to Mandarin songs and the causes for that shift. I argue that the shift is primarily due to two reasons which I will discuss below. A piece of his early Cantonese song is linked above and his later much more successful Standard Mandarin song is linked in a separate tile

Background: Born in British Hong Kong, Eason Chen is a famous Chinese singer who now commands millions of fans across Chinese-speaking people around the world. While his early songs are predominantly in Cantonese, his later songs are predominantly in Mandarin Chinese. The shift in the language used in his lyrics and the shift's connection with the Hong Kong identity are the subject of this padlet

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: I am a long-time fan of Eason and his songs. As an international student, I  would often feel a sense of homesickness during my stay in the U.S., and listening to Eason’s song would often comfort that longing for my family and friends back home. Therefore I think choosing his notable style shift for this padlet would be an ideal choice for me.

- Which groups does the singer seem to be identifying with: Answer: As a Hong Kong native, the singer seems to shift his identification to that of the Chinese mainlander (Chinese who resides on the Chinese mainland rather than in Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan) later in his career

- Why do you think they shift: Answer: The first reason Eason Chen shifted his style could be a form of audience design that is due to his signing with a big record company (Emperor Entertainment Group). Record companies are profit-driven. It may be that seeking more revenue from the more populous Chinese mainland market, the record company urged Eason to try to get more fans from the Chinese mainland, rather than restricting his career development in Hong Kong, which only has a tiny population. A useful tactic to break into the mainland market would be to write and publish more songs in Standard Mandarin, the preferred dialect of the mainland, to appeal to mainland audiences. The attempt is successful and Eason is now one of the most popular singers among Chinese mainlanders. An alternative explanation for Eason's shift is more nuanced. As a Hong Konger born under the British rule of the island, Eason spent his formative years in the turbulent political environment of a Hong Kong detached from Britain and handed back to China (mainland). The island’s century-long colonial rule under the British has caught Hong Kongers at the time, who suddenly become Chinese citizens overnight, in a state of identity disorientation. Native Hong Kongers find it hard to identify with their mother country and its people: the majority of the mainlander speak Standard Mandarin rather than Cantonese (The native dialect of Hong Kong), the mainland economy is state-driven whereas Hong Kong has laissez-faire capitalism, the mainland has always been independent while Hong Kong had operated as a British overseas territory for over 100 years. The palpable sense of loss at the time has helped to create a wide array of excellent films, songs, and books that explore Hong Kong and its people's new identity under the island's reunion with the mainland e.g. Happy Together(a film by Wong Kar-wai that purportedly features an LGBTQ relationship but with a political allegory tucked inside, hence the name). Yet despite the disconnection, a sizable portion of Hongkongese feel it is morally imperative to integrate with the mainland. As a social influencer, Eason’s effort to speak mandarin, the prevalent mode of speech on the mainland, may be an act to better connect Hong Konger and the mainlander on an emotional level that would help to improve the relationship between the two groups of people once separated from one another due to British imperialism.

- Which elements of language is the shift apparent in? Answer: The pronunciation is the most apparent element of language shift. Cantonese technically is a subset of the Chinese language and they both use almost identical characters, yet it has its own pronunciation system that is almost unintelligible to speakers of standard Chinese. Eason’s later and most successful albums are predominantly in Mandarin Chinese. His song is so successful that many of his mainland fans mistakenly believed that he is a mainland singer. In fact, as a Hong Kong native, Eason only learned to speak standard Chinese when he was well into his 20s

- Do you find the shift convincing? Answer: It is convincing on a commercial level, as evident by the sheer amount of songs written to fit the rhymes of Standard Mandarin lyrics. However, during numerous interviews with mainland media, the audience would often discover that Eason speaks Standard Mandarin in a grammatical structure similar to Cantonese. Therefore it is dubious that a genuine shift had occurred.

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media Case 2 Context & Example in one video

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media Case 2 Context & Example in one video

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Also illustrated a lot of the points made in the case 2 article

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media: The perceived "untrustworthiness" of female high-pitch voice

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media: The perceived "untrustworthiness" of female high-pitch voice

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Case 2

- Context & Sentence Example: This article investigates the perceived trustworthiness of voice with different pitches. It is found that high pitch voices, commonly associated with females, are perceived to be less trustworthy and competent in the political and business arena than low pitch voices, a pitch normally linked to males. Example: linked in a separate tile, specifically 2:11 - 2:14 of the video

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: I find female disadvantage in the political and business realm is quite pronounced across societies and wish to analyze it in further detail, this time from a socio-linguistic perspective

- Briefly discuss its linguistic merit: Answer: The article falls in the category of telling a specific gender not to speak in a certain way. From a linguistic perspective, it analyzes the subject of male-female power imbalance in the different voice-pitch commonly associated with each gender and the connotations behind it. This allows us to use linguistic knowledge to further understand gender inequality and advocate for a more equitable linguistic solution to it.

- Are specific linguistic features referenced, or only vague generalities? Answer: There are no very specific linguistic features being mentioned but there is a generic reference to the high and low pitches of the sound.

- Is quantitative evidence used? If so, do you find it convincing? Answer: There is quantitative evidence present to support the claim. The articles cited a study published in 2013, which measured the vocal pitch of 792 male CEOs and found that those with lower voices were more likely to run larger firms, with a 1 percent drop in vocal pitch was associated with a 1.4 percent increase in the size of the firm managed. (Women were excluded from the study because there weren’t enough of them serving as CEOs.) This article concludes that the research explains why women, whose voices are, on average, almost twice as high as men’s, face a particular challenge when speaking in male-dominated fields, like business and politics.

- Explain how the article demonstrates the difference and/or dominance models. Answer: This article demonstrates the effect of the dominance model since it interpreted a distinctive phonologic feature of female speech, specifically high pitch voice, as associated with a "lack of competence" Using the example of Karen Stintz, a Toronto city councilor, and Margret Thatcher, the article illustrated how female politicians are being hindered in their political careers just because of their high-pitched voice has been associated with incompetence whereas a low-pitch voice, traditionally possessed by males, are favored and celebrated as the symbol of strength and power. (The Dominance Model argues that women have an inferior social position in society and that men dominate women. These social conditions are reflected in male and female language use)

- Tell us whether you find the article to be biased in any way, and, if so, how. Answer: The article may be biased because there is not enough woman that serves as CEOs in the first place to conduct a more complete study. Additionally, the claim may be an over-exaggeration of the negative aspect of female speech patterns. This is because high-pitch voices, although may be associated with trustworthiness in the political and business sphere, have been attached with positive qualities in other spheres. For example, in acting, the ability to express oneself in a high-pitch voice even though one's voice is not high pitch originally is considered as an advantage.

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I n the early months of 2008, as her public profile grew, Karen Stintz, then a Toronto city councillor, heard complaints familiar to many female politicians: her voice, she was told by colleagues and constituents, was "shrill," and she was speaking too quickly for her message to register with her audience. Stintz, who would go on to make a bid for mayor in 2014, worried that her voice would hinder her-that people might only hear how she spoke instead of what she had to say-and so she sought out the services of vocal coach Lynda Spillane.

Listen to an audio version of this story

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Spillane, whose voice is layered with British, Australasian, and American lilts, considers the voice to be an "instrument that most people haven't learned to play." In order to learn, she says, you first need to recognize that the voice is changeable. People tend not to think about how much the voice changes to reflect its social environment, but studies have shown that we adjust our pitch in accordance with our perceptions of social rank-we lower our pitch to project dominance and raise it to show submission. We associate low voices-that is, male voices-with competence and trustworthiness.

One study, published in 2013, measured the vocal pitch of 792 male ceos and found that those with lower voices were more likely to run larger firms-a 1 percent drop in vocal pitch was associated with a 1.4 percent increase in the size of the firm managed. (Women were excluded from the study because there weren't enough of them serving as ceos.) This goes a long way toward explaining why women, whose voices are, on average, almost twice as high as men's, face a particular challenge when speaking in male-dominated fields, like business and politics. The upshot: learn to speak in the low, slow tones we associate with men-and, therefore, leaders-or face a backlash.

Women's voices are scrutinized to an almost comical degree in the political sphere. Margaret Thatcher trained with a vocal coach from the Royal National Theatre to help rid her voice of its "shrill" tone. Her voice dropped a remarkable forty-six hertz, though it was not enough to shield her from being nicknamed "Attila the Hen" by members of the British Parliament. During Hillary Clinton's political campaigns, her voice was derided by pundits as "screechy," "nagging," and capable of making "angels cry"-a type of criticism her male counterparts did not have to worry about. For Stintz, the coaching was simple pragmatism: "I learned that if I have something important to say, I better learn how to say it."

Stintz's efforts to win the public over backfired in an ironic fashion: media coverage of her vocal coaching cast it as a petty expense, a waste of taxpayer money. (She paid for it out of her council budget.) For Stintz, it was a lesson in the way women are scrutinized for being proactive about their careers. "It was a little disproportionate," she says, citing large sums that her colleagues spent on language classes and barbecues, which garnered less attention. The backlash she faced for spending money on vocal lessons wasn't about the "frivolous" expense at all, she says-it was a rejection of her ambition.

I n 1998, researchers at Flinders University in Australia discovered that the phenomenon of women adjusting their voices isn't restricted to politics: they found women, more broadly, are speaking in lower pitches than they were a few generations ago. By listening to recordings of women in the 1940s and comparing them with recordings from the 1990s, researchers found that their average "fundamental frequency" had dropped by twenty-three hertz-a drop significant enough to be audible (roughly, the difference between the G# below middle C and F#). The researchers speculated that the prevalence of women with low voices in the media might be helping to perpetuate the stereotype that a low voice is a measure of competence and that women might be imitating what they hear as a way of projecting more authority.

Jay Miller, a veteran vocal coach, often works with women who are concerned their voices are too quiet, high, or raspy. He also regularly works with women concerned about "upspeak": when the speaker inflects a statement toward the end so it sounds like a question. Along with vocal fry-lowering one's voice to a gravelly timbre-upspeak is considered to be a particularly female habit, even though it's present in people of all genders.

Much of the criticism of women's voices has to do with how people conceptualize leadership. Men, after all, have dominated public discourse since we've been recording it. In a lecture about the voices of women in public life, classicist Mary Beard reminded her audience of second-century lecturer Dio Chrysostom, who asked his audience to imagine a community struck by an affliction "harder to bear than any plague": the eradication of the male voice and its replacement with the female. Beard pointed out that, while we are removed by almost two millennia from the orator-whose epithet Chrysostom means "the golden mouth"-our culture is still the heir of a Greco-Roman style of public discourse so biased against the female voice that "one ancient scientific treatise explicitly [explained that] a low-pitched voice indicated manly courage, a high-pitched voice female cowardice."

The preference for a rumbling male voice remains with us today. A study conducted in 2012 by professors at Duke University and the University of Miami demonstrated that both men and women prefer women with lower voices for leadership roles, even in fields that are traditionally thought of as feminine, such as education. (Men with lower voices are perceived-again, by both women and men-to be more socially dominant and attractive; women with lower voices are seen as socially dominant but less attractive.)

Some scientists speculate that we prefer lower voices because they indicate a higher level of testosterone, the hormone associated with developing muscle mass and, in turn, with better hunting-and-gathering capabilities. While our need for brawny leaders has long since evaporated, our preference for low voices has not.

The bias toward masculine voices has far-reaching implications for women in workplaces, where, studies show, women are still more likely to be interrupted and critiqued for expressing emotion. Miller has written that many of his female clients with high voices are associated "with youth, inexperience and even weakness." As a result, "opinions are dismissed and accomplishments are overlooked." For all its seeming frivolity, the way we speak has an enormous impact on the way people perceive us.

Although most women can learn to drop their pitch and project a resonant voice to a certain extent, it's impossible for women to ever truly speak like men. If we set aside the bias that forces women to try, in purely pragmatic terms striking the balance between speaking with a conventional sense of authority and speaking like yourself can pose a challenge: Clinton was perceived as unemotional and cold even as she was ridiculed for sounding like a nagging housewife.

Stintz realized that her tendency to speak in an animated way distracted her audience; changing the way she spoke is akin to female politicians curating their appearances to try to ensure how they look does not distract or alienate voters. Recognizing that these double standards exist doesn't mean you have to agree with them, Stintz explains, but "appreciate that [even] if you don't, it will have an impact. And your message might be watered down by the fact that you're creating some other statement somewhere else." Like an unconventional haircut or blazer, a girlish voice might be the reason a woman loses a vote or gets passed over for a promotion. Walking the line between personal and powerful is something we expect leaders to do with ease, but that path is often more difficult to navigate for women. It's a wonder they speak up at all. And that, of course, is the point.

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Why Do We Have Such a Problem with the Way Women Speak? | The Walrus

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I n the early months of 2008, as her public profile grew, Karen Stintz, then a Toronto city councillor, heard complaints familiar to many female politicians: her voice, she was told by colleagues and constituents, was "shrill," and she was speaking too quickly for her message to register with her audience.

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media: Males prefer "Uh", females prefer "Um"?

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Entry 6: Gender differences in the media: Males prefer "Uh", females prefer "Um"?

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Case 1

- Context & Sentence Example: Answer: People use filler words like "Uh" and "Um" for a variety of purposes. This article discusses the gender difference in terms of using such words and proposed several reasons to explain such difference. Example: uh, her babies are okay?/ I, uh, kinda need to talk to you, bossman, if you're cool with that.

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: This seems to be an illustration of the difference theory while many articles I found tend to be illustrations of the dominant theory. Maybe I just want to introduce a bit of diversity in my padlet.

- Briefly discuss its linguistic merit: Answer: The "Uh" and "Um" study shows how man and woman may use the same linguistic expression for different purposes. From a linguistic perspective, it may offer insights into how each gender differs in behavioral traits

- Are specific linguistic features referenced, or only vague generalities? Answer: The specific linguistic feature referenced is the incidence of use of two linguistic variants: "Uh" and "Um", respectively by male and female.

- Is quantitative evidence used? If so, do you find it convincing? Answer: There is quantitative data present to support the claim made by the article. Specifically, the article cited the research done by Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who noticed the trend after analyzing two datasets containing audio samples from 11,972 speakers. The analysis concludes that, on average, women in this sample said “um” 22 percent more than men, and men said “uh” 250 percent more than women. But men also use filler words (either uh or um) more than women overall—38 percent more often than women. He also found that, over time, the gender divide here seems to level out, and older people of both genders use uh more and um less.

- Explain how the article demonstrates the difference and/or dominance models. Answer: This article illustrated the difference model since the article concludes by stating that the observed difference in the incidence of different usage of "Uh" and "Um" arises from the fact that different gender uses these two phrases for differing communicative functions. It is possible that men are saying ‘uh’ as a placeholder to keep the floor whereas women say ‘um’ to indicate: ‘I’m listening.” This corroborates with the difference model since the theory is based on the notion that in communication and other interactions, men are fundamentally different from women.

- Tell us whether you find the article to be biased in any way, and, if so, how? Answer: This article, I think, is pretty unbiased because, as the article suggests itself, the findings on which the article based its arguments are derived from a computerized database, meaning that we cannot examine the conversational context in which the "ums" and "uhs" appear. I believe if an article is intelligent enough to assess the shortcomings of the article it cited then on the whole it must be reasonably objective.

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So, um, this is weird. There's an apparent gender split in use of the filler words uh and um, according to a recent post on the linguistics blog Language Log: Men tend to say "uh," whereas women tend to say "um."

Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, noticed the trend after digging into two data sets from Penn's Linguistic Data Consortium, which contains audio samples from 11,972 speakers. He writes that, on average, women in this sample said "um" 22 percent more than men, and men said "uh" an incredible 250 percent more than women. But men also use filler words (either uh or um) more than women overall-38 percent more often than women, to be precise. He also found that, over time, the gender divide here seems to level out, and that older people of both genders use uh more and um less.

Purely on its own, it's an intriguing finding. But it's hard not to wonder: What does it mean? Liberman didn't respond to an email from Science of Us, so we contacted Deborah Tannen, the Georgetown University linguist whose work has largely focused on gender differences in communication styles, to get her thoughts on what the gender split might signify. We can't assume too much from these findings, Tannen cautioned, because they're based on a computerized database, and so we can't look closely at the conversational context in which the ums and uh s appear. But Tannen did point out that one commenter on the original post suggested this:

I suspect men use /uh/ as a place-holder. Women use /um/ as a backchannel indicating, "that's interesting, I'm thinking about it."

Bearing in mind the caveat that we don't know what kinds of conversations surrounded the ums and uhs, this theory makes a lot of sense, Tannen said. In her research, she's found that men and women often use similar language for entirely different purposes ( see: "sorry"). Among them, she explains, is this idea of the "backchannel"-that is, listener noises like "mhm, uhuh, and yeah." One of the earliest studies on gender differences in conversation found that men use these listening responses more often than women, and they also use them differently: Women tend to say "yeah" to mean "I'm listening," while men use the word to mean "I agree."

"So the suggestion that men are saying 'uh' as a place holder to keep the floor whereas women say 'um' as a 'backchannel' fits in with that-that women are using it to indicate, 'I'm listening,'" Tannen said. "I would reframe this in my own terms by observing that women using 'um' as backchannel is focused out-by indicating 'I'm listening,' it's taking into account the interaction between listener and speaker. In contrast, men using 'uh' as a place holder is focused in-it's about the speaker's own internal cognitive process. I've observed this difference in many gender patterns of language use."

It's not certain that this is what's happening here. But, still, it's intriguing to think about the potential meaning behind words we think of as meaningless.
See also: The 10 Ways That Men Text Women

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So, um, this is weird. There's an apparent gender split in use of the filler words uh and um, according to a recent post on the linguistics blog Language Log: Men tend to say "uh," whereas women tend to say "um."

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Entry 5: changing words over time: A proof of the now stigmatized word "empire" 

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Entry 5: changing words over time: A proof of the now stigmatized word "empire" 

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A illustration of the now stigmatized word "empire" and its association with oppression

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Cecil Rhodes: Protesters demand Oxford statue removal

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A group of Labour politicians called on Oxford University to “decolonise” and take the statue down.

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Entry 5: changing words overtime: A illustration of the decolonization movement

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Entry 5: changing words overtime: A illustration of the decolonization movement

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the decolonization movement contributed a significant role in stigmatizing the word "empire"

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

decolonization, process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country. Decolonization was gradual and peaceful for some British colonies largely settled by expatriates but violent for others, where native rebellions were energized by nationalism. After World War II, European countries generally lacked the wealth and political support necessary to suppress faraway revolts; they also faced opposition from the new superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both of which had taken positions against colonialism. Korea was freed in 1945 by Japan's defeat in the war. The U.S. relinquished the Philippines in 1946. Britain left India in 1947, Palestine in 1948, and Egypt in 1956; it withdrew from Africa in the 1950s and '60s, from various island protectorates in the 1970s and '80s, and from Hong Kong in 1997. The French left Vietnam in 1954 and gave up its North African colonies by 1962. Portugal gave up its African colonies in the 1970s; Macau was returned to the Chinese in 1999.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Adam Augustyn.

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Decolonization | Definition, Examples, & Facts

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Decolonization, process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country. Decolonization was gradual and peaceful for some British colonies largely settled by expatriates but violent for others, where native rebellions were energized by nationalism.

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Entry 5: changing words overtime: "cyber" used in the age of dot com bubble

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Entry 5: changing words overtime: "cyber" used in the age of dot com bubble

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A illustration of the "cyber" craze

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Depending on your age, you remember the Internet craze when e-commerce first became a thing and the subsequent dot-bomb bubble. Each week I list as many of the cybersecurity investments I can find and sometimes comment on the plausibility of each one in my cybersecurity news blog. But it's hard to tell if a new business solution or technology is feasible and well-architected without truly performing due diligence or a security product assessment. As I look at the amount of money going into investments and the number of companies doing very similar things in a crowded space, I can't help but wonder if this is another investment bubble.

What leads me to this train of thought? Learn from the past. If you are considering joining a startup as an employee or investing in one, consider this story. I've written and talked about how I switched to new technologies over the course of my career in my classes and books and possibly other blog posts. Forgive me if I repeat myself but it is relevant to this topic. I was just starting to become a "real" programmer in corporate America when I saw that this guy - Jeff Bezos - was trying to sell books online. I immediately changed my career path to focus on web-related technologies and architecture.

At the time, I worked for a company that manufactured ultrasound machines called ATL Ultrasound. That company was later acquired by Philips. My job, which I was extremely excited to get when I started, involved Visual Basic and SQL programming with Oracle and a touch of SAP ABAP (which I never want to see again and recruiters still send me jobs for that occasionally). I made customizations to a system from a company based out of Atlanta for the sales and marketing team. I also got to work on a custom application as part of the rogue technical team deployed outside of IT by the sales department. I enjoyed going to the sales parties in places like Palm Springs and Universal Studios in Florida.

That was a fun job, but I was helping the sales and marketing team with traditional client-server applications. The moment I saw e-commerce I knew it was a thing that would happen. I read articles that said the banks would never accept the risk for online transactions. I didn't believe them. It would be so much easier to sell things online than in person. How convenient would it be to buy a book and have it delivered to your home? As a side note, I was addicted to books. But it was the ability to shop online that intrigued me. I saw a world of possibilities and immediately switched jobs to a company where I could learn web programming.

One of the people I worked with and played volleyball with at ATL Ultrasound is now head of global service or something very high up like that in an international corporation. I remember him telling me it was risky to change jobs and go work for a start up, but I didn't understand what he meant at the time. The thought never occurred to me. I just wanted to learn new technology. He did very well in his chosen path. I took another.

I eventually did learn e-commerce during that craze. During this transition, I watched as companies got more money than I thought they could ever payback. I had just read a book on value investing from Warren Buffet. He said don't invest in things you don't understand. He also talked about evaluating the value of an investment. I got a lot of job offers to "work for stock" in companies that just didn't make sense to me. I never took any of them up on those offers. Good thing, as none of them made it. My CPA said I was the first to tell him that it was a house of cards that was going to come crashing down.

I watched investors putting money into anything that sold something on a website and any technology that supported those websites. Some foreign investors put $300,000 into a company run by a 23-year-old girl that wanted to sell lingerie online - and my company helped build her website. Bratopia. We didn't get a lot of money out of the project but my business partner was involved in the original company before joining mine and stored the high-end lingerie in his basement. I did end up getting some of that when the company couldn't pay the bill.

During that time period, I worked for a couple of venture capitalists performing technical due diligence. I wanted to learn about term sheets and how to value companies and how venture capitalists selected investments. I got on the selection committee of a women's investment group that no longer exists called Seraph Capital. That's where I got more structured knowledge on evaluating companies. I learned about business plans from a lot of presentations and books. My company at the time, Radical Software, also sponsored what was called the Seattle MIT Venture Club. Here angel investors and venture capitalists would come and speak to would-be entrepreneurs who asked questions to do a thinly-veiled mini-pitch of their company.

And of course, we attended all the networking events. I went to the newly constructed Experience Music Project (EMP), now Museum of Pop Culture, three times in one month for free. It was at one of these events where I learned about Match.com, a recently funded company. Some lady in a red beret came up to me and told me that a guy across the room wanted to talk to me. I said, great I'll bring my business partner, Dave. She said, "No, Honey, he wants to talk to you." Maybe I missed a wonderful opportunity but I said no thanks. I was there for business and was a little embarrassed by the whole thing. After attending many such events I learned which ones were serious about business and which ones were singles parties.

As I looked at the astronomical numbers going into these companies and just not understanding how that could ever pay off, I told my friends working at EMC that they should turn their attention from large corporations to startups. These startups had more money than they could spend. My friends ended up making out every well. Very, very well. I told one guy he at least owed me dinner. He did oblige.

Every startup had gimmicks to get the programmers to come work for them. The company I joined ended up moving into a new office and gave all the programmers the window offices. I shared a huge office with another programmer that had an amazing view of Puget Sound.

Later, that company convinced me to work at a client office on a satellite team because they were trying to get purchased. I agreed if they would pay for a parking spot in a nearby garage. I worked at the client company as an e-commerce and web consultant. They offered free cereal and milk. Employees could choose from a vast array of boxes of almost any kind of cereal. Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Captain Crunch, Wheaties, or whatever your favorite. Help yourself.

I left the free-cereal company shortly after they made me sign a very restrictive contract and moved to a tiny startup based in Europe with guys I knew, all working remotely. Those guys had sniffed clear-text traffic on landlines to figure out how to reverse-engineer credit card transactions and wrote an e-commerce processing system.

That was a short-lived project because a short time later I went on to start my own business after graduating with a master's degree in software engineering. I just wanted to do my own thing. Those same guys later came to work for my company, Radical Software. They were very smart and had much more experience than me. I was super excited to have them on the team. But, all good things must come to an end.

Pretty soon the over-investment took its toll. One founder got millions of dollars, threw a party in Vegas, and went out of business. I watched as the venture capitalists I was working with call their term sheets wallpaper each time another investment folded. I remember the place where we had leased office space told us that a company took over $20,000 in investment and immediately went out of business so the owners could pay off debts. One of my friends bet on numerous companies on margin and couldn't pay it back. He ended up giving up a boat he loved and many other amenities. It took him years to recover.

Software Engineers were no longer buying Porsches. They were trying to find jobs. People who switched from very good careers to become programmers and cash in on the craze couldn't find work. People I knew were losing jobs right and left and not only startups. And not only in the software and web industry. I knew a person who had a job for years at one of the biggest HVAC companies in town that lost his job. The dot-bomb crash was impacting all industries, not just high-tech. The same thing happened in 2008 when the real-estate-driven crash cost me a high-tech job opportunity.

My boyfriend at the time was chastising me for running my business as it wasn't "stable", but I told him to look around. Having a job at a large company doesn't mean you'll keep it. I was making a good rate through my own company as a consultant. Someone told me a system administrator job at Microsoft got over 500 resumes. How do you even look at and evaluate that many job applicants? The Seattle market was oversaturated with programmers and IT professionals as all the startups imploded. Eventually people moved or changed careers.

Both the companies I moved to after leaving my big corporate job ended up going out of business after I left. Radical Software survived, but not necessarily thrived, after the dot-bomb era for reasons I explain in my book. I was a little disheartened by the things that happened during that whole period and how dishonest people can be. It was definitely a learning experience.

We worked hard to pay off debts that were honest and fair. Eventually, I had to tell my employees and later my business partner they needed to leave because there was no money to pay them. I didn't make them leave, I just told them the money wasn't there because the market had completely dried up. It was a sad time as we had just turned the corner on profitability when a series of events knocked us down.

It took me years in some cases to pay back people and companies we owed when a large organization pulled a $90,000 contract out for under us so the new chairwoman could give it to her best friend with a struggling business. All the promising contracts we had in the pipeline vanished. I ended up paying my employees' health insurance from my own savings. One of them I found out later, had cancer and never told us so I was glad I did.

Although I struggled with that company at times, we never went bankrupt during the whole dot-bomb era. It's a good thing because a job I got later would not accept anyone who had a bankruptcy on record. I watched how things played out with investors and had decided not to take any investment previously so over-investment did not affect my company. I struggled to keep expenses below income and ended up building back up a safety net through hard work and innovative business solutions.

Radical Software had a few clients remaining and continued to support them. I and various contractors I hired ended up providing services to an existing customer - a company that never accepted funding and went on to survive and flourish. The founder sold customized invitations online. I helped her figure out the new thing - search engine optimization (SEO) - by reverse engineering other top websites and learning from a company she hired. The company the owner hired was building static SEO pages but I built SEO into her website dynamically so it helped every page on the site. Her company became a multi-million dollar company and sold off to a larger company.

Although my company survived, at times barely, I eventually went back to Corporate America for personal more than business reasons. I kept running the company on the side for a while but shut it down when my corporate jobs took too much time for me to spend time on it.

As fate would have it, I'm back in business, but now in cybersecurity at 2nd Sight Lab. And once again, I am watching all the investment dollars going into cybersecurity startups with overlapping and sometimes obscure technologies and curious if we are going through the whole thing all over again. We'll see how it plays out.

Teri Radichel - Follow me @teriradichel

___________________________________________________

Want to learn more about Cybersecurity and Cloud Security? Check out: Cybersecurity for Executives in the Age of Cloud on Amazon
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Have a Cybersecurity or Cloud Security Question? Ask Teri Radichel by scheduling a call with IANS Research.
Cybersecurity & Cloud Security Resources by Teri Radichel: Cybersecurity and Cloud security classes, articles, white papers, presentations, and podcasts
For a recap of cybersecurity news last week check out the 2nd Sight Lab Cybersecurity News Blog. Malware, vulnerabilities, data breaches, cost of a data breach, cybersecurity laws, and interesting cybersecurity developments.

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Depending on your age, you remember the Internet craze when e-commerce first became a thing and the subsequent dot-bomb bubble. Each week I list as many of the cybersecurity investments I can find and sometimes comment on the plausibility of each one in my cybersecurity news blog.

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Entry 5: changing words over time: "aviation" used in World War II

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Entry 5: changing words over time: "aviation" used in World War II

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A newspaper detailing the German bombing of London during World War II as a part of Hitler's grand campaign to take over Europe

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This post is part of a series post-blogging the Blitz of 1940-41 and the Baedeker Blitz of 1942. See here and here for introductions to the series, and here, here and here for conclusions.

The Luftwaffe launched mass daylight raids against London and Bristol yesterday, 'the most widespread of the war' according to the Daily Mail (1), and with the largest losses since 15 September, too. German losses are reported to be 130 aircraft and about 300 aircrew, while the British lost 34 fighters and 19 pilots. Many people watched the battles from the ground, and 'cheered as raider after raider fell'.

Bomber Command's raids seem to be meeting with success, depending on what is meant by success (cf. Illingworth's cartoon above, from page 2.) The 'Daily Mail Radio Station' (i.e. the Mail's monitoring of enemy radio stations) says that, according to Italian broadcasts (1),

casualties in Berlin caused by recent R.A.F. raids are the heaviest since the air war began. A total of 1,753 have been killed and 2,049 wounded.

The Mail also has a photo of a British 'secret weapon', the '"flame leaf" [...] which has caused so much terror in Germany':

It takes the form of an incendiary pill treated with specially prepared cotton wool [...] which burns under the influence of oxygen or the sun's rays.

Supposedly, because of the 'flame leaves' being dropped by the RAF 'Berliners are now required to buy their own gas masks at once'.

So the RAF seems to be getting rather good at this aerial warfare business. And it seems it may soon have the advantage of numbers. Harold Cardozo has met in Lisbon with 'A famous neutral air expert' who is apparently familiar with the Luftwaffe and the German aviation industry (6). He says that Germany's numerical superiority over Britain, while real, 'is strikingly less than I thought' and anyway is partly due to dive-bombers which are useless now that there is no land war. Moreover, the Luftwaffe is 'at present practically incapable of expansion' whereas the RAF will start to expand 'on an immense numerical scale as from November next'. The expert (an American?) is also scornful of Germany's training system and lack of aircrew reserves.

There is also some (potential) good news on the home front. Two 'air raid dictators' (the Mail's term) or 'Special Commissioners' (the government's) have been appointed for the London area. Henry Willink, KC, MP, is to be responsible for 'the care and rehousing of the homeless', while Sir Warren Fisher, former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, is charged with 'speed[ing] up the clearance of debris, the work of salvage, repair of roads, and the restoration of damaged public services'. Local authorities have also been given powers to requisition basements as 'day-and-night shelters'. Will these announcements satisfy those who have been calling for 'dictators' to cut through red tape and quickly bring relief to the beleaguered people of the East End? Their timing has certainly taken some of the force out of the New Statesman and Nation's leading article today, which alleges that those steps which have been taken to date (such as opening Tube stations to shelterers) have been forced upon 'reluctant Ministers by the overpowering and immediate needs of East London' (297). It calls for 'a Welfare Bard which can over-ride the competing and overlapping authorities'. Still, the New Statesman has had a good run on this issue -- Ritchie Calder was one of the first to publicise the bureaucratic muddle surrounding post-raid welfare, in last week's issue, and there is much support for his criticisms in today's letter columns.

Let's take a look at life in the shelters. Tom Harrisson, one of the founders of Mass-Observation, has an interesting article in the New Statesman today on how people are adjusting to life under the bombs. He includes a long description, from (presumably) one of his observers, 'an East End working girl', of 'one of the few deep shelters in the East End' (probably the Tilbury). I'm going to quote it in full (300-1). Compare it with illustrations of ' Blitzkrieg problems in London', as printed in today's Illustrated London News (403).

The structure is colossal, mainly of platforms and arches. The brick is so old, the place so filthy and decrepit, that it would be difficult for the best of artists to convey its ugliness on paper. First impression is of a dense block of people, nothing else. By 7.30 p.m. each evening, every available bit of floor space is taken up. Deck-chairs, blankets, stools, seats, pillows -- people lying on everything, everywhere.

When you get over the shock of seeing so many sprawling people, you are overcome with the smell of humanity and dirt. Dirt abounds everywhere. The floors are never swept and are filthy. People are sleeping on piles of rubbish. The passages are loaded with dirt. There is no escaping it. The arches are dank and grim -- they are lighted well, until black-out time, and then all the lights on one side are put out, because the black-out arrangements are inadequate.

There they sit in darkness, head of one against feet of the next. There is no room to move, hardly any room to stretch...

The sirens went at about 8 p.m. Lots of people were asleep, but in general it was too early for this.

But already, at 8, people were beginning to cough, and this coughing spread, and lasted throughout the evening. I developed a cough and sore throat, in the early stages of the evening.

Everyone there was working class. The shelter is near the dock area, and near the coloured quarters. Mostly Cockneys, but also many Jews and Indians. On the whole, the Jews lay on the right-hand side, the Cockneys in the middle, and the Indians on the left. Race feeling was very marked -- not so much between Cockney and Jews, as between White and Black. In fact, the presence of considerable coloured elements was responsible for drawing Cockney and Jew together, in unity against the Indian. There were a lot of cases of mixed marriages -- in fact, it was more usual to see a mixed one, than to see husband and wife coloured. Some of the coloured people were Indian, some Negro, a few Chinese. Some of the Indians, those not occupied with girls, played cards.

Harrisson adds (301):

The only first-aid facilities were provided by a group of men who clubbed together voluntarily; sanitation, some pails behind screens; lighting, medieval. All night long wardens patrol and act as dormitory police. Here, surely, is a new low for urban civilisation? Yet there is really nothing else that people in that area can do. It is not the civilisation they have made, it is the one that has been prepared for them these many years past.

Oh, and the Manchester Guardian finally has a another letter regarding reprisals today. It's from Ex-Lieut., Machine-gun Corps of Brighton who says 'Surely we have fought this war long enough in kid gloves' (4). He thinks the German people need to be taught that 'these methods of warfare do not in the long run pay' and so wants a German city to be 'systematically and ruthlessly bombed'. But since he would have Britain give warnings first, this 'drastic' action would only place him somewhere towards the moderate end of the Mail's pro-reprisal correspondents.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://airminded.org/copyright/.

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The Luftwaffe launched mass daylight raids against London and Bristol yesterday, 'the most widespread of the war' according to the Daily Mail (1), and with the largest losses since 15 September, too. German losses are reported to be 130 aircraft and about 300 aircrew, while the British lost 34 fighters and 19 pilots.

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Why the data was chosen: I'm a history lover and am particularly intrigued by major historical events such as warfare and technical revolution so maybe that is why I prefer words that are related to history here.

(a)Why do you think it shows the trajectory that it does?

(b)Does the change in its usage reflect a technology, concept, event, etc., coming into being or gaining/losing importance at a particular time? Or does it reflect language-internal change, with no obvious external motivator?

Rising: “cyber”

-       (a)Answer:  The reason for the rising trajectory is due to the fact that the internet was not formally invented until 1983. Specifically, the word stays relatively out of the lexicon until 1982 and peaked in 2000, which is the peak of the dot com bubble. At that time the world has an extremely optimistic prospect about tech companies, which is why it leads to over speculation on the stock market. The instant money people can get from investing in tech companies at that time leads to a surge in using the word "cyber". After the bubble blasted, however, the word “cyber” continued its popularity primarily because the internet’s revolution on every aspect of our lives had been put into motion. From remote learning to recommendation algorithms, the use of the internet is now ubiquitous. Therefore, we’re left with a persistent rising trajectory on the graph. An illustration and example of the dot com bubble is linked in padlet.

-       (b)Answer:  The change in its usage reflects a technology gaining more importance at a particular time. As the internet plays an increasingly dominant role in our lives, the word’s use also proliferated.

Fad: “aviation”

-       (a)Answer: Ever since the Wright brothers invented the world’s first pane at the year of 1903, the use of the word “aviation” is climbing, albeit at a relatively modest rate compared to the word use’s peak during 1943 and 1944, the most intense years of the second world war, where hundreds of battles were fought between the Allied and the Axis powers, often with air supports. The use of airplanes also contributed a significant part to the bombing of London, a crucial moment in the entire war. The participation of airplanes in the war that happened in both Europe and the Pacific occupied a prominent role in English Newspapers that covers the news on war actively. This contributed to the spike of this word around 1943 and 1944. However, when the war ended in 1945, the word use plummeted and is restricted to the civil and scientific realm instead. An example of the word's use in World War II is linked in padlet.

-       (b)Answer: the word use’s trajectory is primarily caused by distinct historical periods. Specifically, the World War II.
when the word is featured extensively in English newspapers.

Decline: “empire”

-       (a)Answer: The reason for the declining use of the word “empire” I think is twofold: First, there is the actual, physical disappearance of worldwide empires around the globe. As methods of production for human society changed, most feudal, inefficient empires were replaced by republics and constitutional monarchies. Second, the word “empire”, after the decolonization movement and the dominance of the United States - an anti-imperialist power - in the international sphere, has been associated with oppression and cruelty.  The dominant narrative of international discourse has attached a stigma to the word "empire". This disincentivizes people to associate themselves with anything related to “empire” and refrain from using the word to address others. An example of the word's stigmatization is illustrated in an example linked in padlet, where protestors demand the removal of the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, a strong proponent of British imperialism during the 19th century.

-       (b)Answer: The word’s use declined steadily throughout the centuries primarily due to changing social structure and the shifting of global power to the anti-imperialist United States. Both are external factors.

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Basic info about Y'ALL

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Y'all (pronounced yawl) is a contraction of and all, sometimes combined as you-all. Y'all is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also appears in some other English varieties, including African-American English and South African Indian English. It is usually used as a plural second-person pronoun, but whether it is exclusively plural is a perennial subject of discussion.

Y'all arose as a contraction of you all. The term first appeared in the Southern United States in the early nineteenth century, though it was probably uncommon at that time, its usage not accelerating as a whole Southern regional phenomenon until the twentieth century. The earliest attestation, with the spelling you all and in the specific second-person plural pronoun usage, is 1824. Earliest attestations with the actual spelling y'all are from 1856, however it was likely pronounced y'all much earlier. Another notable early attestation is in the Southern Literary Messenger (published in Richmond, Virginia) in April 1858. It is not certain whether its use began specifically with black or white residents of the South; one possibility is that the term was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants to the South, evolving from the earlier Ulster Scots term ye aw. An alternative theory is that y'all is a calque of Gullah and Caribbean creole via earlier dialects of African-American English. Most linguists agree that y'all is an original form, deriving from original processes of grammar and morphological change, rather than being directly transferred from any other English dialects.

Y'all appeared at different times in different dialects of English, including Southern American English and South African Indian English, indicating it is likely a parallel but independent (unrelated) development in those two dialects. However, its emergence in both Southern and African-American Vernacular English indeed correlates in terms of the same basic time and place.

The spelling y'all is the most prevalent in print, being ten times as common as ya'll; much less common spelling variants also exist, like yall, yawl, and yo-all.

Functionally, the emergence of y'all can be traced to the merging of singular (" thou") and plural (" ye") second-person pronouns in Early Modern English. Y'all thus fills in the gap created by the absence of a separate second-person plural pronoun in standard modern English. Y'all is unique in that the stressed form that it contracts ( you-all) is converted to an unstressed form.

The usage of y'all can satisfy several grammatical functions, including an associative plural, a collective pronoun, an institutional pronoun, and an indefinite pronoun.

Y'all can in some instances serve as a "tone-setting device to express familiarity and solidarity." When used in the singular, y'all can be used to convey a feeling of warmth towards the addressee. In this way, singular usage of y'all differs from French, Russian or German, where plural forms can be used for formal singular instances.

There is long-standing disagreement among both laymen and grammarians about whether y'all has primarily or exclusively plural reference. The debate itself extends to the late nineteenth century, and has often been repeated since. While many Southerners hold that y'all is only properly used as a plural pronoun, strong counter evidence suggests that the word is also used with a singular reference, particularly amongst non-Southerners.

H. L. Mencken recognized that y'all or you-all will usually have a plural reference, but acknowledged singular reference use has been observed. He stated that plural use

is a cardinal article of faith in the South. ... Nevertheless, it has been questioned very often, and with a considerable showing of evidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to be sure, you-all indicates a plural, implicit if not explicit, and thus means, when addressed to a single person, 'you and your folks' or the like, but the hundredth time it is impossible to discover any such extension of meaning.

-  H. L. Mencken, The American Language Supplement 2: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, 1948, p.337

The existence of the genitive (or possessive) form y'all's indicates that y'all functions as a pronoun as opposed to a phrasal element. The possessive form of y'all has not been standardized; numerous forms can be found, including y'alls, y'all's, y'alls's, you all's, your all's, and all of y'all's.

All y'all, all of y'all, and alls y'all are used by some speakers to indicate a larger group than is necessarily implied by simply y'all. All y'all can also be used for emphasis; the existence of this etymologically pleonastic form is further evidence that speakers now perceive y'all as a grammatically indivisible unit.

Y'all has been called "perhaps the most distinctive of all grammatical characteristics" of Southern American English, as well as its most prominent characteristic. People who move to the South from other regions often adopt the usage, even when other regional usages are not adopted. Outside the southern United States, y'all is most closely associated with African-American Vernacular English. African Americans took Southern usages with them during the twentieth-century exodus from the South to cities in the northeastern United States and other places within the nation. In urban African-American communities outside of the South, the usage of y'all is prominent.

The use of y'all as the dominant second person-plural pronoun is not necessarily universal in the Southern United States. In the dialects of the Ozarks and Great Smoky Mountains, for example, it is more typical to hear (a contraction of "you ones") used instead. Other forms have also been used increasingly in the South, including the use of .

Overall, the use of y'all has been increasing in the United States, both within and outside the southern United States. In 1996, 49% of non-Southerners reported using y'all or you-all in conversation, while 84% of Southerners reported usage, both percentages showing a 5% increase over the previous study, conducted in 1994.

In South Africa, y'all appears across all varieties of South African Indian English. Its lexical similarity to the y'all of the United States is attributed to coincidence.

Y'all is found, in much lesser degrees, in other dialects of English, including the dialects of Maori English in New Zealand, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

1. ^ you-all and y'all. Dictionary.com. Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. 2019.

2. ^ Crystal, David. The Story of English in 100 Words. 2011. p. 190.

3. ^ Schneider, Edgar W. "The English dialect heritage of the southern United States", from Legacies of Colonial English, Raymond Hickey, ed. 2005. p.284.

4. ^ Montgomery, Michael. "British and Irish antecedents", from The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 6, John Algeo, ed. 1992. p.149.

5. ^ Garner, Bryan. Garner's Modern American Usage. 2009. p.873.

6. ^ Bernstein, Cynthia. "Grammatical features of southern speech", from English in the Southern United States, Stephen J. Nagle, et al. eds. 2003. pp.107-109.

7. ^ Hickey, Raymond. "Rectifying a standard deficiency", from Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term Systems. Irma Taavitsainen, Andreas Juncker, eds. 2003. p.352.

8. ^ Lerner, Laurence. You Can't Say That! English Usage Today. 2010. p. 218.

9. ^ Okrent, Anrika (September 14, 2014). "Can Y'all Be Used to Refer to a Single Person?". . The Week Publications.

10. ^ Mencken, H.L. (April 4, 2012). The American Language Supplement 2: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States. A. Knopf ebook. ISBN 9780307813442.

11. Wright, Susan. ^ "'Ah'm going for to give youse a story today': remarks on second person plural pronouns in Englishes", from Taming the Vernacular, Jenny Cheshire and Dieter Stein, Eds. Routledge, 2014. p.177.

12. ^ Mesthrie, Rajend. "South African Indian English", from Focus on South Africa. Vivian de Klerk, ed. 1996. pp.88-89.

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Y'all (pronounced yawl ) is a contraction of and all, sometimes combined as you-all. Y'all is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also appears in some other English varieties, including African-American English and South African Indian English.

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Contextual info about Y'ALL

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It's as Southern as eating cornbread, sipping sweet tea, and swatting mosquitoes on a porch in the summertime: using the word "y'all" is a quintessential southern trait. Whether you're a lifelong Southerner, Yankee transplant, or just passing through, you're most likely familiar with this basic Southern saying, but do you know how to use it correctly?

'Y'all' vs. 'Ya'll': Is There Really a Difference?

The answer is yes. "Ya'll" is just dead wrong. There is only one correct way to spell or use "y'all," so whatever you do, don't use the dreaded "ya'll." You may have heard people say that "y'all" isn't proper English, but it's really the misspelled "ya'll" that can get you in trouble.

How the Saying Originated and Evolved

While "y'all" is actually a contraction for "you all" and is therefore technically correct, it is most commonly used in place of the plural form of "you." The apostrophe after the "y" represents the lost "ooo" sound from the letters O and U. This explains why the sometimes-seen "ya'll" spelling is wrong.

General speaking, "you" is the second-person singular pronoun, while "y'all" is modern English's answer to a second-person plural pronoun. There are other ways to make "you" plural in other parts of the English-speaking world, such as just saying "you guys" (common in most of the Northern United States), "you lot" (Great Britain), or even "youse" (Australia), but even two out of three of these simply add a word to "you."

In Spanish, the second-personal plural pronoun is ustedes or vosotros. In informal German, it's ihr. While at one time, English speakers may have used "thou" for their second-person plural, these days we are much more likely to use one of the above examples, unless we are quoting Shakespeare.

Other Ways to Use Y'all

English speakers aren't just limited to "y'all" to convey their meaning. "All y'all" (or "all of y'all") on the other hand, is an occasional variation some use to mean a group of people (as opposed to just two or three). For example:

When speaking to two or three people: "Are y'all going to the movies?"

When speaking to several people: "Are all y'all going to the movies?"

Things are further complicated when using the possessive form of the word. For example:

"Is this y'all's car?"

"Is this all y'all's favorite color?"

Note, though, that there is some debate on the spelling of the possessive form of "y'all." Some will spell it "y'all's" whereas others will spell it "y'alls." Because there does not seem to be an official answer, it is a matter of personal preference.

Is It Really Acceptable?

Although "y'all" is not generally considered appropriate for formal writing, it's not an improper or incorrect term, nor does it indicate a failure to grasp grammar or the English language. It is just another way that language has evolved over time to provide us with a much-needed second-person plural pronoun. So use it without fear when speaking with friends-especially in the South-but avoid it in college papers or professional communications.

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Speak Like a Southerner: How to Use 'Y'all' the Right Way

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It's as Southern as eating cornbread, sipping sweet tea, and swatting mosquitoes on a porch in the summertime: using the word "y'all" is a quintessential southern trait. Whether you're a lifelong Southerner, Yankee transplant, or just passing through, you're most likely familiar with this basic Southern saying, but do you know how to use it correctly?

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Definition & Example sentences of Y'ALL on Merriam-Webster

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Dictionary Entries Near y'all

Cite this Entry

"Y'all." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/y%27all. Accessed 17 Sep. 2023.

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

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The meaning of Y'ALL is you -usually used in addressing two or more persons.

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Entry 4: Covert Prestige: “y’all”,  a variant of "you all"

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Entry 4: Covert Prestige: “y’all”,  a variant of "you all"

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- Sentence Example: "Are y’all [yawl] coming home for holiday this year?" Instead of "Are you all coming home for holiday this year?" (Merrian Webster)

- Background & how does the variant exemplify covert prestige? Answer: Covert prestige means instances where nonstandard languages, dialects, or variants are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a certain speech community. The use of “y’all ” exemplifies as covert prestige since as a variant of the standard American English “you all”, y’all is an informal, common way of addressing two or more people in Southern American English and in African American Vernacular English, both of which are not considered as standard American English, hence the covert. Yet, using "y’all" in one’s speech will likely tie the speaker more closely with people who speak Southern American English or use African American Vernacular English, who favors the casual and welcoming spirit exhibited by the use of the variant, hence the prestige.

-  Reason for picking this variant: Answer: As an international student, I’m always very curious about African American Vernacular English, which is featured intensively in hip-pop music, but I found them very difficult to comprehend for an ESL student. I’m also interested in Southern American English due to a film that inspired me when I was little – Forest Gump. Therefore, I think “y’all” seems to be the perfect choice for my padlet because it intersects with both areas of interest.

- What are the negative and positive attributes associated with the variant? Answer:
- Negative attribute: "Y'all" is a common phrase used in African American Vernacular English, a sociolect attached with a stigma that associates its speaker to the low-class and the uneducated. Additionally, "y'all" is deemed to be inappropriate for formal occasions.
- Positive attribute: Saying "y'all", to me, seems to be a very effective way to express a light-hearted, welcoming spirit and a sense of brotherliness that saying "you all" simply could not express. Also, the phrase is slightly shorter than saying "you all," which saves time.

- What do you think the user is trying to communicate by using the variant? Did it work, in your opinion? Answer: The user is trying to communicate to his/her listener a sense of shared identity, and it often worked. For example, Barack Obama, the former President of the United States, used “y’all” in a restaurant located in a historic Black neighborhood to address the restaurant's staff (Atlantic). The use of the variant greatly increased the popularity of Obama among the local community and many African Americans. Because these people start to identify Obama, who seems to be able to speak in the same way as themselves, as a down-to-earth and approachable human being rather than an out-of-touch politician. (Source provided in the linked article) Personally, I think using the variant to impress the group that favors the variant (in this case using "y'all" to appeal to many African Americans)is an effective strategy since the covertness of the variant implies that those who speak the variant had less power and that any attempt to appeal to them will be appreciated because these people know the language, dialect, or variant they use is not acknowledged as the standard and people may often have to make a genuine effort to get to know it. Additionally, this strategy of employing a familiar linguistic variant that exhibits covert prestige is especially effective when it is used by a powerful person to identify himself to a group of less-powerful people since these people will often be very happy that they got the powerful person's attention.

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From Appalachian hollows to urban neighborhoods, the ways people speak can bring them together or cause social isolation. A language expert explains why.

On a cold Saturday afternoon a week before Barack Obama's first inauguration, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty took the president-elect out for a half-smoke sausage at Ben's Chili Bowl. The restaurant is a landmark in a historic black neighborhood. Duke Ellington and Miles Davis ate there; Bill Cosby still does. After Martin Luther King's assassination, Ben's got permission to stay open after curfew, serving chili to black activists and police officers as the streets burned around them.

During his visit, Obama held babies and posed for pictures, but he also seemed determined to fit in with the local scene. He sauntered toward the counter, asking for "cheddah" cheese, and addressed the staff colloquially - "Y'all have some Pepto-Bismol?" And when the cashier tried to give him change, he shot back, "Naah, we straight."

There's a YouTube video of all of this, and language scholars have watched it again and again. "You can hear how he uses features of the African American vernacular that he wouldn't use while giving a political speech," says Walt Wolfram, a dialect expert and professor at North Carolina State University. I talked to Wolfram about why Americans speak the way they do, and what makes us celebrate or stigmatize the differences.
What exactly is a dialect? In America, we don't have an official "high" version of our language the way Germans and Italians do, so how do we decide who speaks standard English and who doesn't?

Here in America, your speech is usually considered standard if it doesn't call attention to itself - if you don't use certain verb forms or certain kinds of plurals and so forth. As academics, we try to use "dialect" as a neutral term by saying that everyone speaks a dialect. But society doesn't quite see it that way. The word has taken on negative connotations.

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When Presidents Say 'Y'all': The Strange Story of Dialects in America

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From Appalachian hollows to urban neighborhoods, the ways people speak can bring them together or cause social isolation. A language expert explains why. On a cold Saturday afternoon a week before Barack Obama's first inauguration, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty took the president-elect out for a half-smoke sausage at Ben's Chili Bowl.

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Entry 3: Language, place, and advertising: Two case studies in Wuhan, China. Case 1

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Entry 3: Language, place, and advertising: Two case studies in Wuhan, China. Case 1

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Case 1

(a)Where did you see the ad/sign/text? Answer: Tanhualin, Wuhan, China

(b)What community does it target? Answer: Tourists who come to Wuhan from other parts of China.

(c)Why do you think the advertiser chose the language that they did? What effect was it intended to have? Answer: A form of subtle marketing aimed to induce tourists to patronize the store

Explanation:

I saw this fake zebra and its accompanying sign at Tanhualin, Wuhan’s storied alleyway famed for featuring a range of boutique souvenir shops where thousands of tourists around the country would come to visit on a daily basis. The sign reads “个斑马的武汉”, a literal translation of the phrase would be “A zebra’s Wuhan.” A translation that makes no sense to people who do not know Wuhanese, the regional dialect native to the City of Wuhan. However, a person who speaks the dialect would immediately realize that the sign is a stringent satire of the City’s notoriously churlish dialect. While “个斑马” means “a zebra” in the standard Simplified Chinese Characters, the pronunciation of “个斑马” in Standard Mandarin is phonically similar to the phrase “raised by a whore” in Wuhanese, Wuhan’s regional dialect. Therefore, rather than meaning “a “zebra’s Wuhan“  as indicated by the zebra statue behind the sign, “个斑马的武汉” actually means “Wuhan, a city raised by whores.” However, to understand the sarcasm of the sign aside from its offensive nature, we need a very important context: “个斑马” or “raised by a whore” is a widely known phrase used in daily conversation by Wuhanese dialect speakers to express a range of emotions such as excitement, fear, happiness, and anger. The reason for incorporating such an obscene phrase into the day-to-day conversation is caused by the city’s distinctive place in modern history. Designated as a trade port to Western colonial powers during the early 20th century. Wuhan’s newfound position as a transportation and commercial hub for central China created the need for a large number of barge haulers, a low-skill and laborious occupation that are only applied by low-class people whose only means is to find jobs that could sustain themselves.  The influx of such people to Wuhan to fulfill its exploding hauler demand created a large hauler population in Wuhan, whose original disparate dialects merges into Wuhanese as a result of Dialect Leveling, a process by which original dialect evolved in new environment and eventually become a new dialect. It is to compensate for the harshness of their occupation, that these haulers, without the constraint of polite society, incorporated all sort of “bad” words into the ordinary everyday conversation in Wuhanese to vent out resentment for their abysmal working conditions and eventually passed down that speech pattern even when the original hauler community vanished after the nation modernized. The tendency to constantly use obnoxious phrases such as “raised by a whore” in Wuhanese, however, gives people who visited Wuhan years after that historical period the impression that Wuhan folks are irredeemably ill-bred. A widely circulated joke about the city’s boorish dialect said that upon observing multiple instances where ordinary residents in Wuhan greet each other by the breakfast stall using phrases like “Morning, you whore-raised little bastard”, some uninformed visitors theorized that a sizable portion of the population in Wuhan are indeed raised by prostitutes. Thus, I suspect the reason for installing this sign in front of a souvenir shop is that it serves as a form of marketing by conforming to tourists’ stereotype about Wuhan as a bad-mannered metropolis and appeals to the joke of it being “a city raised by whores.” This piques the interest of informed tourists who may go on to patronize the shop.

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Entry 3:  Language, place, and advertising:  Two case studies in Wuhan, China. Case 2

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Entry 3:  Language, place, and advertising:  Two case studies in Wuhan, China. Case 2

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Case 2

(a)Where did you see the ad/sign/text? Answer: Xudong Ave, Wuhan, China

(b)What community does it target? Answer: Native Working-class people in Wuhan who have a tight budget

(c)Why do you think the advertiser chose the language that they did? What effect was it intended to have? Answer: The use of direct phonetical transcription of local dialect assures the restaurant's targeted customers that this is the restaurant that caters to their needs

Explanation:

Another instance of using dialect as a form of advertisement also occurs in Wuhan, where a low-end fast food restaurant is named “其德堡.” Likewise, a literal interpretation of the name makes no sense as the direct translation of the name in Standard Mandarin would be gibberish as well.  However, the pronunciation of the name in Standard Mandarin is phonically similar to “吃的饱” in the regional dialect Wuhanese, which means “a fulfilling meal.” An important context for understanding why the restaurant is named using a phonetic imitation of the regional dialect using Standard Mandarin characters is that the restaurant is a cheap, low-end that targets consumers are working-class people who live in Wuhan, who predominately speak the regional Wuhanese dialect rather than Standard Mandarin(a state-mandated instructional language) due to the limited education they received. It is likely that the restaurant owner wants to have a name that sounds more approachable to its target consumers by exploiting the fact that having a dialect-based name signals the restaurant’s low-end status due to the covert prestige Standard Mandarin held in the city. For working-class consumers who have limited budgets, the name would assure them that they could walk into the restaurant without fearing to embarrass themselves when they see the price.

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The variable I pick is “丈夫” (zhang fu) in Mandarin Chinese, meaning husband. The variants of “丈夫” are “老公” or “夫君” among others. I pick this “丈夫” as my variables since in most Chinese textbooks, “丈夫” is usually the primary lexicon used to designate a husband. However, the actual use of the word depends heavily on the social situations in which the variants are spoken. In Mainland China, for example, during formal settings such a wedding, the preferred form of address for a husband by the host is always “丈夫”(zhang fu), on the other hand, during private settings such as one’s own house, the preferred address for husband and wife become “老公”(lao gong). This is because “老公”, a combination of “老” and “公” is the usage prevalent among the majority of the people who have received less education and therefore have less exposure to a polite way of addressing a husband such as using “丈夫”. To avoid being not perceived as “one of the people”, people with a bit of schooling generally do not use the word “丈夫”, which has a slight association with education and refinement and may be regarded as pretentious and unnecessary. Conversely, It is considered slightly vulgar to address a husband on a formal occasion using “老公” and overly formal to address a husband using “丈夫” in a private setting. The variant “夫君”(fu jun) refers to a combination of the Han character “夫” and “君” or husband and gentleman. The variant is used by wives as a way to express endearment to their husbands. For example, a wife may say to her husband: “你真是一个好夫君”, meaning you are such a gentlemanly husband. While substituting other variants here is feasible, using “夫君” on occasions other than this would be seen as weirdly anachronistic since the word was used primarily in ancient times when Chinese social etiquette largely conforms to the Confucian values, which deems an ideal husband as one of gentle spirit. The linguistic variable “丈夫” is a part of the language I speak. For me personally, I address someone’s husband as “老公” if the people who would hear me are my close friends or people from a lower socioeconomic class that received less education. That way I could avoid being perceived as superficial and not being one of the “people.” However, I will switch to “丈夫” if my listeners seem to have a good education so I could show my respect by using the word “丈夫” to show my listeners that I think highly of them because I used a word reserved for the educated class.

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Entry 2: Linguistic variable “丈夫” in a sentence

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Entry 2: Linguistic variable “丈夫” in a sentence

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Entry 2： Linguistic Variable: Definition and variants of "丈夫"

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Entry 2： Linguistic Variable: Definition and variants of "丈夫"

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丈夫 Synonyms, Antonyms - MandarinChinese-English Dictionary &Thesaurus - YellowBridge