BS: Plural of you

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: smallpiper
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:21 AM

Define standard English - would that be Queens English or American?

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: Declan
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:20 AM

Yiz are all gettin' very upseh over nuthin' (as they say around here) usually followed by Yanowharrimeann !

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:19 AM

I grew up convinced that teachers came from some mysterious other-wordly place where dialect, accent and (above all) slang are unknown; so when you speak to them, you have to speak in their terms, or have them demand "'gis'? I don't know that word!" or "'ain't? Who says 'ain't'?".

You know this old chestnut? St Peter is changing the paper in the heavenly fax machine when there's a knock at the Pearly Gates. Not wanting to have to stop what he's doing, St P calls out, "Who's there?"
"It is I."
"Not another teacher!"

Steve

P.S. In answer to the question: yes, teachers ought to speak "properly" to parents, unless they are in more intimate circumstances than a PTA meeting.

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: GUEST,GerMan
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:14 AM

There's nothing wrong with "yous" - it's simply part of certain dialects. It would be very boring if we all spoke the same. Until the publication of the first bible in Tudor times there wasn't any standard English & therefore certain dialects were not seen as inferior to others. Ever since then though when the then dialect of the South East of England was used in the Bible anyone with anything different is seen as inferior/uneducated.

It's jus' no right ah tells yer.

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: GUEST,Kim C
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:10 AM

Y'all. Then there's "all y'all."

In some parts of the Midwest its you'uns... pronounced more like "yoons."

Isn't "yous" a Northern variation?

If your child is in a gifted program, and doing very well, I wouldn't worry about it. :-) This teacher may well have other outstanding gifts.

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: mack/misophist
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:09 AM

Bagpuss:

The job of teaching the lower grades is a little different from other jobs. Much of what is taught is by example, especially speech. Don't forget, standard English is still mandatory in standard jobs.

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: JenEllen
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:08 AM

The one that still gets me, and I do it often enough to cringe, is --- all y'all --- Bad grammar, and redundant to boot, take 'er out behind the barn....

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 10:01 AM

Danged, if therez one thing that really gits by bobey Wes Ginny butt it's what's happening the purrfectly good English. Youz gotta be beside youzsefl there, Mooh. I mean the very thought of a gifted teacher uszin' youz when most folks know that you'allz is the only correct termonology. Whatz this world comin' to , anywayz? Nevermind.

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: MMario
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:57 AM

Thou

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: Bagpuss
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:57 AM

So if I were a teacher and I used any dialectal variations, then I am not fit to be a teacher?

I would find it very difficult to for example stop saying "us" instead of "me". I have never dropped these sorts of indicators of my dialect, even in interview situations (pretty formal occasions) and it has never stopped me getting a job (I have got the job in almost every interview I have been to).

Bagpuss

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: Bagpuss
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:52 AM

They are re-making The Silence of the Lambs in Liverpool. It's going to be called...

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Shurrup Yous (ewes)

Subject: RE: BS: Plural of you
From: jeffp
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:51 AM

No you're not. It drives me crazy, especially coming from someone who should know better. I would not consider this person to be fit to teach my child.

Subject: BS: Plural of you
From: Mooh
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:48 AM

I've just returned from a meeting with the teacher of my grade 6 child, with a principal, another teacher, my wife, and my kid in attendance. It was a casual but necessary (by law I believe) meeting to discuss my kid's progress in a "gifted" program. Very little of any consequence happens at these annual meetings other than the signing of paperwork, and the acknowledgement that the silly computer programs designed to create the paperwork don't work very well.

Now, anyone who has ever read my posts here will know I'm not the most articulate, grammatically correct individual, but fer Chrisakes...the teacher addressed my wife and I as "yous", not once, but twice! I wanted to ask her how to spell it. Casual or not, in a meeting of this nature I would expect a teacher to drop the yokel colloquialisms.

I hate "yous" whenever I hear it, but for an educated 30something grade 6 teacher to use it with parents doesn't leave me with much faith in her other abilities. I hope I'm not being to judgemental.

Am I the only one who is bothered by this stuff anymore?

Peace, Mooh.