this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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If anyone can find more pixels for me i would appreciate it.

Thanks y'all.

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[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 54 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (4 children)

"y'all" fills a legitimately useful gap the English language has. Other languages have a word like this.

Edit: also something cool I just found out, some languages have a way to disinguish "we" (you and I), and "we" (me and the rest of us, not you). It's called clusivity and is missing from European languages. Many indigenous languages of the Americas and Oceania have this, as well as Vietnamese and northern dialects of Mandarin.

[–] doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml 6 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Not a gap in every dialect! "Ye" is another plural second person used in Ireland

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

Hear y'all hear y'all, Reggie King from o'er the holler brought pawpaw moonshine for the weddin'

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

The worst is when a language formally has a disambiguating word but then speakers all just decide to not use it.

[–] NENathaniel@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Any examples of an equivalent in other languages?

I speak a small amount of French but can't think of one

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

"Vous" is the first one that comes to mind in french. But since it is also a more formal (and/or "respectful") version of "tu/toi", it can both designate a group of people or a single person, depending on the context (just like "you" in English). Sometimes people will use "vous tous" (literally "you all") to make this clear.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 1 points 5 hours ago

Spanish has "Ustedes" (except in Spain, they use "Vosotros/Vosotras")

[–] dsilverz@thelemmy.club 5 points 8 hours ago

In Portuguese (especially Brazilian), there are singular and plural forms of "you": "você" (singular) and "vocês" (plural). In English, "you" behaves like a plural because it's followed by "are" instead of "is". The only exception I can see is "yourself" and "yourselves" that refer to both singular and plural forms.

However, In Portuguese, even though we have "vocês" as plural form, we also use "vocês todos" or "todos vocês" ("you all"/"all of you") sometimes.