Wanna be a skipper

[avb3]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Great story! But there's a grammatical mistake in the third paragraph, which needs "yew" instead of "y'all". Only Yankees address a single person with "y'all", and the joke is about a "real Southern gentleman".

Another point of Southron grammar:

"y'all" is the familiar form of the second person plural personal pronoun. The formal form is "yew".

Speaking formally, "yew" is both singular and plural. So Southron is just like German here - "y'all" exactly corresponds to German "ihr" - the second person plural familiar; speaking formally, the singular and plural second person personal pronouns correspond - "Sie". So "yew" is exactly like German "Sie" and

"y'all" is exactly like German "ihr" (euer, euch, etc).

Ganz genau. Beinahe.

Except I think Yankees would be rather insulted by the suggestion that they even use "y'all". So would a few of the good ole boys that anyone would have intimated a usurping of their cultural identity.

And we haven't even started discussing the proper use of "all-y'all". As I indicated, my Floridian girlfriend, who is a teacher, insists that "y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural. I defer to her, as she grew up in southern Alabama. I'm trying to teach her the proper use of the term "eh".

[puregeorge]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

I've been sailing for over 45 years and still wish I could be a skipper.

learnt in ASA 101 that the skippers real job was to inform the helmsman which way to point the tiller. The helmsmans job was to keep the boat on course and and say "ease the sheet" and "jibe ho"

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here. Learned the skipper term while in the Navy in sailing classes. Once you take control of the steering you become the skipper whether your hand is on the tiller or wheel or you are in charge. It means you are responsible for everything that happens on the boat as well.