Date:  Fri, 21 Jan 1994 11:35:14 CST

From:  salikoko mufwene <mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>

Subject: Re: y'all



In reponse to Don Lance, Tim Frazier writes:

>It ["y'all"] appears in South African Indian English, RAjend Methrie in ENGLISH IN

>LANGUAGE SHIFT, Cambridge UP 1993. It occurs in "informal letters" and

>"formal speeches" and is "below the level of social consciousness." (61)

>RM notes that when written it is spelled "you'll."

>

>I would hesitate to say that it had "spread" to SAIE. SAIE appears to be

>a learner variety with some influence from Hindi, Tamil, and other Indian

>languages, less relation to Indian English.



 You are right, saying "it had 'spread'" would rule out by fiat the

possibility of parallel and perhaps independent development. The Rajend

Mesthrie discusses the development of SAIE does not suggest possible

influence from the American part of the world, at least not obviously from

his discussion. On the other hand, what justifies the comment "SAIE appears

to be a learner variety?" I didn't develop this impression from reading

Mesthrie's book. All I could tell is that it is one of the several

contact-induced varieties around the world.

Sali.

Salikoko S. Mufwene

Linguistics, U. of Chicago

s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu

312-702-8531