Review: "Y'all" could improve your dialect!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2012
The concept for this book was a fairly good one, but poor editing always takes away from a book. The forced, unnatural cursing was also a  distraction; it reminded me of two children attempting to use "new" curse words, and using them inappropriately. The main distraction, however, was one that I find quite often when reading an author who is not familiar with the vernacular of the Deep South. The term "y'all" is NEVER used unless it's referring to two or more people. I was born and reared in the Deep South, and although I've never heard a fellow Southerner use "y'all" interchangeably with "you", I find that some writers from outside the area, even those who have spent some time in the South, can't quite understand the correct usage for this contraction. "Y'all" (a shortened form of "you all") is ONLY used when referring to a plurality. Although New Orleans has its own flavor of southern dialect, I've never heard a New Orleans native use "y'all" when he is talking to or referring to only one person. An author who wants to incorporate dialect from a particular area of the country in order to make his or her writing more authentic should research that dialect more carefully. Without that research, the author can include a local landmark or event in every paragraph, and still fall far short of painting an accurate picture for the reader.